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Richmond. Va. 





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UNITEC 

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) STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 


Division 

Xo. 

PRESENTED BY 


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ERRATUM 

The distance from Ricliinond to the sea, by the river, is 127 miles, not 
150 miles, as stated on page 5. This correction is made in accordance 
with the latest surveys of the United States Engineer Service. 



-fs 






V 



Compliments of the Author, 

G. WATSON JAMES, D. L 



THE ADVANTAGES 



RICHMOND, 



VIRGINIA, 



Manufacturing # Trading 



'^'^ CENTRE, 



WITH NOTES FOR THE GUIDANCE OF TOURISTS 

ON THE LINES OF TRANSPORTATION 

RUNNING FROM RICHMOND. 



NOV 14 1889 Ai 



RICHM 

PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE TRADE COMMITTEES OF 

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL CLUB. 

1882. 



WM. ELLIS JONES, 

PRINTER, 

RICHMOND, VA. 









To The Reader: 

The wonderful development of the great West 
is very largely due to the aid afforded by the men and money 
of New England and the East. It is believed that the time 
has come when the men and money of New England and the 
East can find as rich returns ifi SoutherJi development. In 
this view the good people of Richmond present this little book, 
and they ask for its contents a patieiit consideration. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I.— Richmond, Virginia: p^o-e 

Settlement— Topography— Health— Public Grounds and 
Parks— Inter-Communication— Churches— Schools and 
Colleges— Temper of People, &c 5_io 

Chapter \l.— Means of Transportation: 

The Past and the Present— The Various Railroad Sys- 
tems—The Country Drained by Them— Water Com- 
munication II-2T 

Chapter lll.—General Manufacturing Exhibit: 

Capital Invested— Hands Employed— Aggregate Sales- 
Special Advantages— Water and Steam Power— Labor 
Supply— Raw Material Available— Fostering Auxilia- 
ries 

22-29 

Chapter IN —Manufactures in Detail: 

The Banking Basis — The Coal Movement — The Iron 
Interest— Milling— A Comprehensive Range of Indus- 

'""^ :■• 30-45 

Chapter v.— The Jobbing Trade: 

How It Has Been Built Up — Richmond the Closest, 
Cheapest, and Most Natural Market for the South-^ 
List of Jobbing Enterprises— Some Potent Reasons 
Why the Trade Will Continue to Increase 46-49 

Chapter VI.— (9/" Interest to Tourists : 

Historic— Points of Interest in the City— As a Home for 
Invalids— The Scenery on the Railroad Lines and the 
Summer Resorts so-64 



Richmond, Virginia. 



CHAPTER I. 

SET'ILEMENT— TOPOGRAPHY— HEALTH— PUBLIC GROUNDS 
AND PARKS — INTER-COMMUNICATION — CHURCHES- 
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES— TEMPER OF PEOPLE, &c. 

Richmond, the capital city of Virginia, was settled in 1609 by 
a small body of colonists sent out from Jamestown, but for a long 
period it was little more than an outpost on the then frontier. In 
1737 it was laid off in streets and lots by Colonel William Byrd, 
was duly incorporated in 1742, and became the seat of govern- 
ment in 1779. It is situated at the head of navigation and tide- 
water, on James river, 74 miles in an air line from the sea; 150 
miles by the river. Latitude 30°, 32', 17", N. ; longitude 77°, 
27', 28'\ W. 

TOPOGRAPHY. 

Topographically considered, the city is built upon two undu- 
lating plateaux, resting on granite, divided by the valley of 
Shockoe creek, and again subdivided by smaller valleys and 
ravines, through one of which flows Gillie's creek. This latter 
stream may be said tc divide the eastern* plateau proper from 
another plateau extending into the country. The general ap- 
pearance of the city, particularly from the river front, which is 
2.06 miles in length between the eastern and western corporation 
limits, is hilly. The principal streets are laid off from east to 
west, parallel with the river; the cross streets from north to south, 
the blocks being rectangular and for the most part of uniform 
area. The lowest sections of the city range from 15 to 40 feet, 
and the highest from 150 to 200 feet, above tide level. The cor- 
poration area, as at present bounded, embraces 6.12 square miles. 



b RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Its greatest length from east to west is 3.50 miles ; from north to 
south, 1,75 miles. The pavements are from 10 to 12 feet in 
width. 

HEALTH AND DRAINAGE. 

In point of health Richmond has every natural advantage. 
The mean temperature for the year 1881 was 61°, and its eleva- 
tion above the sea secures it a constancy of pure air. Total rain- 
fall (1881), 38.64 inches; average for eleven years 37.37 inches. 
Even at the highest range of the thermometer sunstroke is very 
rare, and seldom fatal. The undulating and rolling character of 
the surface, producing short divides between the valleys of the 
creeks and the ravines, render it easily drained by its 18.35 miles 
of main sewerage already completed. As building extends the 
drainage and grading extends with it. 

PUBLIC GROUNDS AND PARKS. 

The total area of the public grounds and parks in the city 
proper is above 40 acres — divided into five principal parks and 
a number of smaller open spaces. Chimborazo Park, 29, and 
Libby Hill Park, 3.50 acres, are located in the eastern portion 
of the city, 150 feet above tide level. They command a view 
of the city of Manchester on the opposite side of the river, to- 
gether with the bridges connecting it and Richmond ; the lower 
James and its tortuous and picturesque windings for miles; the 
falls above the city, the docks and wharves, and the rich low- 
grounds of Chesterfield county. The Capitol Park, 13 acres, 
with its ancient State-house, its statuary, its parade ground, 
and beautiful foliage, is like Boston Common, the centre of 
the city, and promises to continue the point from which exten- 
sions will be made m all available directions. Gamble's Hill 
Park, 8.50 acres, is on the south and river front of the city, over- 
looking many of the principal manufacturing establishments, and 
also commanding a view of Manchester, the lower James, Belle 
Isle, and the smaller islands that stud the river at and above the 
falls. Monroe Park, 8.875 acres, is in the western extension of 
the city — a level plat, well shaded and beautifully ornamented 
with beds of shrubs and flowers. Just on the western edge of 
the city are the Old Reservoir grounds — a most attractive place, 
— and a mile further west is the New Reservoir Park. This latter 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. / 

embraces i6o acres, bordering on the upper reach of the James, 
and is the driving park of the Richmond people. Here are located 
the New Reservoir and the New Pump Houses. The drives are 
kept in fine condition, and in the course of a few years the entire 
area will be thoroughly shaded. One of its present principal 
attractions is a large lake, used for boating in the summer and 
skating in the winter. It is also used as a fish-hatchery, and is 
one of a projected cordon of lakes to be extended to the river, 
the last of which will, in certain seasons, be at the service of 
anglers. 

INTER-COMMUNICATION. 

Communication betwto'i the different parts of the city is easy 
and convenient. A double-street railway track traverses the two 
principal thoroughfares — Main and Broad streets — from east to 
west, with the prospect of several cross lines, and a further ex- 
tension west, as improvements may demand. With the street- 
car facilities now afforded, access from the line to most any part 
of the city requires only a k\v minutes walk. 

GAS AND WATER SUPPLY. 

The city is well lighted by gas, of its own manufacture, and is 
now abundantly supplied with water from James river, the purity 
of which is well attested both by the experience of the people 
and chemical analysis. The water is pumped from several sta- 
tions along the upper river front, or falls, above navigation, 
which renders it free from pollution of any character whatever, 
and into reservoirs, dividing the distribution into two services. 
The maximum pumping capacity is 24,000,000 of gallons per 
day, and the total storage capacity of the reservoirs 52,000,000 
of gallons. The city authorities, realizing that rapid growth in 
population and manufactures could not be assured except with 
an ample supply of water, made the splendid provision for it 
above described. The fire department is paid by the city, and 
is efficient both as to apparatus and the men composing it. 

CHURCH EDIFICES AND MEMBERSHIP. 

It has been frequently remarked, with a great deal of truth, by 
strangers visiting the city, that it is the "greatest church-going 



O RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

place of its size in the United States." The church statistics for 
1881 make the following exhibit. Number of edifices 55, di- 
vided as follows: Baptist, white, g, colored, 10; Catholic, 3; Dis- 
ciples or Christians, 2 ; Episcopal, white, 9, colored, i ; Friends, i ; 
German Evangelical, i; Hebrew, 3; Lutheran, 2; Methodist, 
white, 8, colored, 2; Presbyterian, 4; total membership 30,146, or 
but a fraction less than one-half of the entire population, which, 
according to the census of 1880, was 63,600. The total number 
of children in Sunday schools was 14,893. Since these figures 
were compiled several new congregations have been organized. 
Some of the church edifices are exceedingly handsome, and 
connected with all the denominations are working and effective 
benevolent organizations. 

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 

The educational facilities are unsurpassed. The free schools 
are thirteen in number, grading from the high school to the pri- 
mary, and in accommodations, teaching ability, and the general 
supervision given them, compare most favorably with any free 
schools in any city North or South — a fact fully attested by lead- 
ing educators from other States. In 1881 the total number 
of teachers in service was 146; — scholars, 5,995. The private 
schools of all grades are abundant. Richmond College, and the 
Virginia Medical College, together with several large female in- 
stitutes are also located here. Besides this the city is within a 
days' ride of all the leading institutions of learning in the State. 
The Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee Uni- 
versity at Lexington ; the University of Virginia, near Charlottes- 
ville ; William and Mary College at Williamsburg ; Hampden 
Sidney College, and Union Theological Seminary, near Farm- 
ville ; Roanoke College, at Salem ; Randolph Macon College, at 
Ashland, and the several female seminaries and male academies 
at Petersburg, Staunton, Danvi41e and other points. 

AS A HOME FOR ARTIZANS. 

Few cities can offer greater inducements than Richmond as a 
home for artizans. In addition to its school and church privi- 
leges and its healthy location, it presents unusual facilities for 
enabling the thrifty to buy their own houses. In nearly every 




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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 9 

direction in which the city is extending there are desirable build- 
ing lots which can be bought cheap, and are convenient to the 
manufacturing plants that have been or may be made. The 
means of enjoyment in the city are ample — all the respectable 
benevolent orders are in good condition, and wages in proportion 
to the cost of living are higher than in many northern cities. 
The tenement-house system, with the stifling atmosphere of nar- 
row streets and cramped courts is practically unknown and un- 
nece.ssary. Besides having the parks as " breathing places" in 
warm weather, it is hardly possible to walk a half dozen blocks 
in any direction in the city without coming in sight of running 
water and green fields. The city is beautifully shaded with lin- 
den, maple, and other choice trees. 

COST OF LIVING. 

During the present year there has been a slight advance in 
rents, owing to the unusual demand for houses. But this is com- 
pensated for in the low price of necessary articles of living. All 
the railroads leading into the city run through thickly wooded 
sections of the State, and all save one have coal fields on their 
line. In the matter of fuel alone it is safe to assert there is a 
difterence of fifty cents per ton in coal at retail in favor of Rich- 
mond consumers the year round, as compared with northern 
trade centres. In wood there is about four times this margin. 
Live stock raising is a large industry in the western and south- 
western portions of the State particularly, and the price of meats 
averages much below the cost in cities north of us. In vegeta- 
bles, owing to the fact that the surrounding country is one vast 
market garden, the price is reduced almost to a minimum. The 
fish and oyster supply is unlimited, and is accessible by both the 
York and the James rivers. Shad run to our very wharves, and 
the river above the city is well stocked with game fishes. From 
the mountains, in season, is brought a plentiful supply of venison. 
To revert to the matter of rents, however, as before indicated, on 
all the suburbs there are most advantageous building sites to be 
purchased cheaply, and which, it may be added, offer induce- 
ments to build, not only for individual occupancy, but for rental. 
In view of the abundance of brick-clay, granite, timber and 
other material used in building, contiguous to the city, capital 
could find no better investment than in small houses for artizans 



10 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

and others in moderate circumstances. It is demonstrable, con- 
sidering the low price of ground, that a given number of such 
houses, which in Philadelphia, for instance, would yield from 
three to four per cent, upon the investment, would in Richmond 
yield six or seven per cent. 

CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 

The people of Richmond are notably law-abiding and hospi- 
table. To strangers they show every courtesy, business and 
social, and are ever ready to extend a warm welcome to any who 
may desire to settle in their midst. There are three large clubs, 
the Commercial, the Richmond and the Westmoreland, and 
several minor clubs, the doors of which are open to all visitors 
who may be properly introduced, and where the best elements of 
business and society circles are met with. 

PUBLICATIONS AND LIBRARY FACILITIES. 

There are five daily papers in Richmond — the Dispatch^ the 
Whig, the Siaats- Gazette, the Zietung, (the two latter German), 
morning, and the State, evening. The religious papers are, the 
Central Presbyterian, the Southern Churchman i Episcopal), the 
Catholic Visitor, the Christian Advocate (Methodist), and the 
Religious Herald (Baptist). The periodicals are the Virginia 
Medical Monthly, the Southern Clinic, the Southern Planter, 
the Southern Pulpit, the Southern Historical Society Papers, 
and the Virginia Educational Journal. There are also sev- 
eral literary, news and trade weeklies, including the hidus- 
trial South, the Commercial and Tobacco Leaf, Every Satur- 
day, the Star, and the Trade Journal a7id Hotel Reporter. 
The library facilities are the State, the Court of Appeals, the 
Young Men's Christian Association, the Richmond College, and 
several smaller libraries. The principal places of amusement 
are the Richmond Theatre and Mozart Hall, and a joint stock 
company is being formed to erect a handsome Opera House. 
The Mozart Association was organized as a glee club several 
years ago, and now has five hundred contributing members. 
Concerts or parlor operas, in which are engaged the best amateur 
and professional musical talent in the city, are given weekly. 



CHAPTER II. 
MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION. 

■THE PAST AND THP: PRESENT— THE VARIOUS RAILROAD 
SYSTEMS— THE COUNTRY DRAINED BY THEM-WATER 
COMMUNICATION. 

Before presenting the claims and advantages of Richmond as 
a commercial and manufacturing centre, there are several points 
to be submitted in anticipation of the obvious question, " Why 
has not progress in these directions been more rapid ?" This 
is easily accounted for. When the facts are weighed, it will, we 
are confident, be admitted that under the circumstances the city's 
recuperation and development have been unprecedented. Vir- 
ginia, in common with the South in general, was, prior to the 
war, an agricultural country by distinction. The comfort of the 
people was so universal, that there was little disposition to em- 
bark much in manufactures, or any business conducted on a 
large scale, except as hereinafter noted. With the abolition of 
slavery, bearing as it did so severely upon the farming in- 
terest, the energies of the people had to be directed to nbw call- 
ings. The accommodation to this state of things was necessarily 
gradual, yet our men are now found in every line of business ; 
and it is not too much to assert that what has already been 
accomplished gives promise of a splendid future. As for Rich- 
mond itself, seventeen years ago the whole business portion 
was in ashes and without insurance. The principle streets 
were impassable for vehicles, and the people were without 
a medium of exchange. Utter ruin, financially, was the rule. 
What capital could be borrowed, or in any way realized from 
the wreck, had to be invested in rebuilding, or in business 
ventures, which, through immediate demand, would insure the 
quickest profit. Business men had literally to begin at the 



12 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

bottom, and, what is more, become used to a manner of doing 
business which was entirely new to their experience. Fur- 
ther, until within the last few years, railroad connections were 
incomplete, as far as any extended territory for profitable distri- 
bution was concerned, and what territory was accessible was barred 
against Richmond trade by the railroad discriminations in favor 
of other points. Every influence that could be exerted, was ex- 
erted to the utmost to drive the Southern trade to cities further 
north. The task of overcoming these obstacles was a herculean 
one, but will and energy have accomplished it. Steadily and con- 
servatively business has been pushed until, against the condition, 
of affairs above cited, Richmond shows to-day, a business quarter 
handsomely and substantially rebuilt, a credit that would be an 
honor to any community, an immense and constantly increasing 
wholesale trade, and a manufacturing interest which, in 1881, was 
represented by nearly $33,000,000 of sales. The enterprise, bus- 
iness tact, and public spirit of the people have finally compelled 
a recognition of the importance of the city as a distributing centre 
for the South and West, and the result is that it is the point of 
radiation for six railroads, which separately or as parts of great 
trunk lines or systems, bring it in connection with and ramify every 
portion of the Union. From the wharves in Rocketts, and from 
Newports News, and West Point — deep water outlets for and 
tributaries to Richmond commerce, — there are also facilities for 
reaching by both sailing vessels and steamers all the important 
home and foreign ports. In order to convey an adequate idea 
of the relations of Richmond to the fields of trade demand and 
supply, let us take a brief glance at the railroad systems and other 
lines of transportion centering here. 

RICHMOND AND DANVILLE RAILROAD SYSTEM. 

This system (see accompanying map) controls through owner- 
ship and lease 2,006.50 miles of trackage, as follows : Richmond 
and Danville Railroad, main line and branches, Richmond to 
Danville, Va., 152 miles; Piedmont Railroad, Danville, Va., to 
Greensboro, N. C, 49 miles; North Carolina Railroad, Golds- 
boro to Charlotte, N. C, 223 miles; North Western North Caro- 
lina Railroad, Greensboro to Salem, N. C, 25 miles; Charlotte,. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 13 

Columbia and Augusta Railroad, Charlotte, N. C, to Augusta, 
Ga., 191 miles; Western North Carolina Railroad, Salisbury, N. 
C, to Paint Rock, Tenn., 186 miles; Columbia and Greensville 
Railroad and branches, Columbia, S. C, to Greensville, S. C, 
296 miles; Knoxville and Augusta Railroad, Knoxville, Tenn., 
to Maysville, Tenn., 16 miles; Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line 
Railway, Charlotte, N. C, to Atlanta, Ga., 288 miles; North 
Eastern Railroad of Georgia, Lulu, Ga., to Athens, Ga., 40 miles ; 
Elberton Air- Line Railway, Elberton, Ga., to Toccoa, Ga., 51 
miles; Spartansburg and Ashville Railroad. Spartansburg, S. 
C, to Henderson, N. C, 50 miles ; Richmond, York River 
and Chesapeake Railroad, Richmond to West Point, Va., 39 
miles; Virginia Midland Railway, Danville, Va., to Alexandria, 
Va., 400.50 miles. From Richmond the line passes through 
the coalfields and granite formations of Chesterfield, crossing the 
Norfolk and Western (from Norfolk via Farmville and Lynch- 
burg, and onward through southwestern Virginia) at Burke- 
ville. Thence almost in a direct line through the grain and 
tobacco districts to Danville — the terminus of the old main 
line. At Danville it connects with the Virginia Midland north. 
Southwardly the system extends over the North Carolina Rail- 
road to Charlotte, N. C, thence dividing, with one line to Au- 
gusta, Ga., and the other to Atlanta, C}a. From Atlanta, Ga., 
the line under construction is projected through Birmingham 
and the Black Warrier coal-fields of North Alabama, across the 
Mississippi river to Texarcana, Texas, to connect at that point 
with the Texas, Mexican and California Railroad lines. 

In North Carolina and South Carolina the system intersects 
the leading lines, finished and projected, from east to west, its cross 
lines and feeders draining the entire Piedmont sections, not only 
of Virginia, but of North Carolina and South Carolina, bringing 
the principal towns and cities in these sections some two hundred 
miles nearer to Richmond than to any Northern city seeking 
Southern trade. The system runs, also in the most direct route 
through the fine tobacco district of North Carolina, and the 
great cotton belts of South Carolina and Georgia, and has under 
natural tribute for outlet the inexhaustible mineral deposits of the 
three latter States, together with the products of their forests. 
The Western North Carolina railroad from Salisbury, on the 



14 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

main stem to Paint Rock, Tennessee, from which point it is 
projected to Morristown, in that State, is an especially important 
feeder, opening up, not only the most picturesque portion of 
North Carolina, but a most valuable country both in point of 
agricultural and mineral products. It is especially a region of 
marbles of all shades. At Richmond and West Point the system 
has water connection with all the principal Northern ports, and 
wharfage capacity and depth of water sufficient for direct ship- 
ment to all foreign countries. 

CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO RAILWAY SYSTEM. 

The Chesapeake and Ohio system proper (see map) has under 
trackage 1,121 miles — Chesapeake and Ohio railway, Richmond, 
Va., to Huntington, West Va , 420 miles ; Newports News line, 
Richmond to Newports News, 75 miles ; Elizabethtown, Lexing- 
ton and Big Sandy railway, Huntington, West Va., to Lexington, 
Ky., 140 miles; Louisville and Nashville railroad, Lexington, 
Ky., to Louisville, Ky., 94 miles; Chesapeake and Ohio and 
Southwest railway, Louisville, Ky., to Memphis, Tenn., 392 miles. 
At Memphis it connects with the Memphis and Little Rock rail- 
road to Little Rock, where connection is made with Gould's sys- 
tem to El Paso, on the Southern Pacific, running through to San 
Francisco, Cal., and giving the most direct route to the Golden 
Gate, as attested by the shipments via Richmond from New 
York. In addition to what has been denominated as the Chesa- 
peake and Ohio railway system proper, the Northwestern system 
runs from Lexington, Ky., to Covington, Ky., (Cincinnati), 99. 
miles; from Cincinnati over the C. I., St. L. and C. line to 
Kankakee, 253 miles, connecting with the Illinois Central, 56 
miles, to Chicago — making the comparative distances between 
Atlantic ports and principal Western railroad centres by the 
Chesapeake and Ohio system and its projected connections, and 
by other trunk lines, as follows : 



RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. 



15 



MILES FROM PORT OF— 


/ 

_C 
"'J 

u 
o 

573 
589 
668 
861 
883 
941 


6 

.'{1 

1 


H 

643 
696 
778 
988 
940 
998 


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*^ 

tn 



913 

929 

964 

1201 

1144 
1202 


IT. 

IS 

s 

1020 
1073 

1365 
1393 
1426 


_fi3 

.c 

^; 

828 
881 
963 
II73 
1 176 

1234 


d 

3 

E 

3 

u 
i2 



564 
513 
548 

755 
761 
829 


"o 

a 

rt 

c 
.2 
■"5 

c 

0, 

688 
705 
736 
935 
830 
888 


d 

U 


H 


RicliniDiui, via Clies. and Ohio.... 

Baltimore, via Bait, and Ohio 

Philadelphia, via Penn. railroad- 
New York, via Erie railway 

New York, via N. Y. Central 

Boston, via N. Y. Central 


832 

839 
823 

983 

980 

1038 



The line runs in Virginia and West Virginia from Richmond 
via Gordonsville, Charlottesville and Staunton to the Ohio river. 
It drains the upland tobacco, corn and wheat sections of Eastern 
Virginia, the great granaries of " the great Valley,'' bisecting the 
vast coal basins of West Virginia, and pierces the very heart of 
some of the most extensive beds of iron and other ores in the 
whole southern country. The coal supply, contiguous to the 
road, is practically beyond computation, and the expense of 
mining is reduced to a minimum compared with the cost in many 
other fields. Shaft work, usually such a heavy charge, is un- 
known, except for air holes, which can be sunk for a trifling sum. 
The character of the coals are bituminous, and semi-bituminous 
viz: Cannel, splint, gas, and pure bituminous steam coals — the 
superior quality of which, for domestic use and the various me- 
chanic arts for which they are severally adapted, having been 
well established. The iron ores comprise nearly all the va- 
rieties used in the manufacture of iron and steel Along the 
line of the road are also immense stretches of virgin forest, the 
timber consisting of oak, yellow poplar, black walnut, hickory, 
cherry, sycamore, pine, and other varieties in demand for manu- 
facturing purposes. It has been proven by actual working, and is 



16 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

now not disputed, that iron can be manufactured from the ore 
along the Chesapeake and Ohio railway at a lower cost than in 
any other portion of. the country — a fact that has already led to 
numerous plants being made by Northern and English capital- 
ists, and created a valuable source of demand upon Richmond, 
as well as a source of supply for her manufactures. Near Char- 
lottesville the road crosses the Virginia Midland from Danville 
to Alexandria; at Waynesboro', just west of the Blue Ridge, 
the Shenandoah Valley from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Roan- 
oke, Virginia, on the Norfolk and Western railroad; and at 
Staunton the Valley railroad from Harper's Ferry to Lexington, 
Virginia, all of which traverse rich and populous sections of coun- 
try. In a picturesque point of view the country from the eastern 
slope of the Blue Ridge to Huntington is nowhere excelled. 
Westward and south-westward from Huntington the line passes 
through Blue Grass country, and lays under tribute an immense 
grain and tobacco growing area. The wheat of this section is 
particularly suited to the needs of the large milling interest of 
the city, in the manufacture of the celebrated Richmond brands 
of flour which have held for nearly a century the chief place 
in the South American trade. By its northwestern connec- 
tions, as shown in the comparative table of distances, it also 
reaches by short and direct route and low grades the great north- 
western grain centres. The Newports News extension, though but 
recently completed, is the realization of the dream of years of 
those who have studied the interests of Richmond and Virginia. 
Here the system has immense wharves and warehouses, and owns 
a water front capable of accommodating any conceivable demand 
of shipping. The depth of water is sufficient to float the largest 
vessels. The line drains a country hitherto cut off^ from railroad 
communication with any point. 

RICHMOND AND ALLEGHANY RAILROAD. 

The Richmond and Alleghany railroad follows the line of the 
old James River and Kanawha canal — the initial link of Washing- 
ton's favorite scheme for mingling the waters of the James and 
Ohio rivers — from Richmond through Scottsville, Columbia and 
Lynchburg, to Buchanan, thence to Williamson's, on the Ches- 
apeake and Ohio railway, 230.31 miles, with branch line to 



RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. 17 

Balcony Falls, 174.50 miles west of Richmond, to Lexington, 
Rockbridge county, Virginia, 19.38 miles. It also has under 
lease the Henrico railroad, which connects with its main line a 
short distance above Richmond, and passes through the Henrico 
coal-fields to Hungary station on the Richmond, Fredericksburg 
and Potomac railroad. The total trackage finished and operated 
is 260.09 miles. The road was chartered February 27, 1879, and 
drains the beautiful James River Valley — the garden spot of 
Virginia — which, prior to its completion, was off the line of 
any railway. The agricultural districts contiguous to the road 
are unsurpassed for richness and variety of product by any 
section of the whole country, while the mineral deposits along 
the road, and demanding an outlet by it, are exceptionally ex- 
tensive. In iron ores the James River Valley especially empha- 
sises the statement of Wiley, that " Pennsylvania, rich as she is, 
is poor in iron ores compared with Virginia " Some years ago 
Professor Rogers, late Emeritus Professor in the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, published a most valuable and a stand- 
ard series of reports on the Geological Formations of Virginia, 
in which the inexhaustible mineral wealth of the State was 
fully classified and demonstrated, but it has been left for John L. 
Campbell, A. M., LL. D., Professor of Geology and Mineral- 
ogy, at Washington and Lee University, to illustrate the prepon- 
derating mineral wealth of the James River Valley. Professor 
Campbell's explorations represent months of patient mental toil 
and physical exertion, and his opinions have been formed, as he 
states, without reference to the interests of any individual or com- 
pany, but solely in the interests of science, and of the State of 
Virginia He may be said to have literally investigated the 
mineral deposits accessible by the road, step by step The work 
was accomplished before the road was completed, and in his 
report Professor Campbell says: 

" My leading purpose is to elucidate and enforce the following 
two or three fundamental facts: (1) The canal and its railway 
connection traverse every one of the Jive great ore-bearing geo- 
logical Jormatio7is of Virginia, and one of the finest limestone 
regions in America. (2) In these formations, or belts, we find 
in great abundance and of superior quality, every variety of ore 
that is profitably worked for iron anywhere in the world, with the 



18 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

exception of the carbonates, like the "clay iron-stones" and 
" black band'' ores of England, which are impure carbonates 
found in the coal regions. (3) Other minerals, besides iron ores, 
that promise to become sources of revenue to the State as well, 
as to the Company, abound in this valley." 

This he does in the clearest and most satisfactory manner 
dividing the ores into five belts, giving assays of specimens from 
each belt, and showing that limestones hitherto employed so 
successfully for fluxing, afe found in close proximity to all the 
deposits. Fuel is the only thing to be transported any distance 
in order to reduce these ores and that is accessible in any quan- 
tity, through the connection of the line at Williamson's with the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Besides this the Richmond and 
Alleghany is already projected to Pittsburg, Pa., through other 
extensive coal deposits. In addition to iron ores, there are near 
to the line or immediately upon it, kaolin, sand of a superior 
quality for making glass, the manganese and copper ores of Nel- 
son and Amherst counties, the barytes of Botetourt and Rock- 
bridge counties, the partially worked gold mines of Pluvanna,. 
Buckingham and Appomattox, the granite quarries above Rich- 
mond, and the slate quarries of Buckingham. Since the road 
has been in operation there has been quite an influx of settlers 
to some of the counties through which it passes — which has made 
itself most perceptibly felt upon Richmond trade. Among the 
property acquired by the railroad company in the transfer of the 
franchises of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company were 
6,800 feet of available dockage on the river front of the lower 
portion of the city, together with one of the most valuable water 
powers in the Union. The connection with the Norfolk and 
Western system at Lynchburg, is also a great acquisition to Rich- 
mond. This line runs through Liberty, Salem, the iron, lead and 
zinc formations, and the rich pasture lands and forests of south- 
western Virginia, into East Tennessee, giving another great sys- 
tem to the West, and with the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the 
Alleghany connection with that road at Williamson's, an advan- 
tage in the matter of grades that is beyond dispute. This single 
item is of incalculable value and importance to Richmond. The 
grades of the Richmond and Alleghany between Lynchburg and 
Richmond average but four feet to the mile. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 19 



THE ATLANTIC COAST LINE. 

The Atlantic Coast Line system (see map) is the second 
great trunk Hne connecting Richmond with the South. The 
total trackage from Richmond south controlled by the system 
is 566 miles, as follows : Richmond and Petersburg railroad, 
Richmond, Va., to Petersburg, Va., 25 miles; Petersburg rail- 
road, Petersburg to Weldon, N. C, 65 miles ; Wilmington and 
Weldon railroad and Tarboro' Branch, Wel'don, N. C, to 
Wilmington, N. C. 182 miles; Wilmington, Columbia and 
Augusta railroad, Wilmington, N. C, to Columbia, S. C, 
192 miles; Northeastern railroad, Florence. S. C, to Charles- 
ton, S. C, 102 miles. At Charleston the system connects 
with the Charleston and Savannah railroad, from Charleston, S. 
C, to Savannah, Ga., 115 miles; thence over the Savannah, 
Florida and Western railroad to Jacksonville, Fla., 172 miles. 
The line crosses the Norfolk and Western system at Petersburg, 
the Seaboard and Roanoke railroad at Weldon, and passes via 
Goldsboro', on the Richmond and Danville system, through the 
immense pine stretches of North Carolina and the lower cotton 
belts of South Carolina and Georgia. Through its cross lines and 
connections it must draw the entire traffic to the east in the three 
last named States ; while to the west it drains the whole country 
between it and the Danville system not tributary to the latter. 
In the logic of trade and traffic these two systems must make 
Richmond their natural base of supply, and reciprocally the 
depot of concentration, for the shipment or distribution else- 
where, in manufactured or crude form, of their overplus of raw 
material. At Chester, Va., on the Richmond and Petersburg 
railroad, the system crosses the Brighthope railroad, extending 
from Bermuda Hundreds, on James river, to the Brighthope coal 
district, in Chesterfield county. The country along the line of the 
road depends altogether upon Richmond for its supplies. The 
lands in this region, having a triassic basis, are admirably adapted 
to the production of cigar ("Seed leaf") tobacco, when the pro- 
duction of that special type shall be added to those which have 
already made Virginia famous as a tobacco State. 



20 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



RICHMOND, FREDE /^ICKSBURG AND POTOMAC RAILROAD. 

This is the great short Hne from Richmond via Fredericks- 
burg to Quantico, on the Potomac river, 82 miles from Rich- 
mond, connecting at Quantico with the Pennsylvania system to 
Washington, 34 miles, thence to New York, Boston, and the New 
England manufacturing centres. It passes in Virginia through 
many of the important battle-fields of the late war, and connects 
at Richmond with the short line south and southwest for pas- 
senger traffic. By it our jobbers have the most direct and 
quickest route for obtaining, by fast freight and express, from the 
North what is not supplied by the Richmond manufactories. 
There are three through passenger trains over it each way daily, 
and it is one of the best equipped and safest roads in the Union. 
Over this line the tobacco manufacturers of Richmond receive 
the bulk of the famous leaf, known as the " Caroline Sun-cured," 
which leaf furnishes the stock for the finest grades of plug to- 
bacco made in the world. 

WATER COMMUNICATION. 

The wharf frontage improved at Rocketts, the lower end 
of the city, is 3,000 feet on the north side, and 1,500 feet on the 
south side of James river. That of the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Railroad Company just below the city is 1,000 feet, add to this 
the 6,800 feet of dockage controlled by the Richmond and Alle- 
ghany Railroad Company, and we have a grand total of 12,300 
feet. This wharfage capacity can be extended indefinitely. The 
■depth of water in the dock is fourteen feet, sufficient to float the 
majority of coasting vessels. The depth in the river over the 
bar is eighteen feet. In this connection, however, it should be 
noted that Congress authorized a special commission of army 
engineer-officers to make a survey of the James river, with a 
view to the increase of its depth to twenty-four feet. They have 
made their report, and declare it entirely feasible. Such depth 
•of water is desired not only for our export trade, but for the 
entrance of raw material by sail vessels for use in our manufac- 
tories. This work of improvement has been pushed forward with 
energy, each year showing a greater depth of water. The regu- 
lar lines of steamers from Richmond, exclusive of the river line 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 21 

to Norfolk, are the Old Dominion for New York, the Powhatan 
for Baltimore, and the Clyde line for Philadelphia. From West 
Point, the Old Dominion for New York, the Boston and Provi- 
dence for Boston, and the York River line for Baltimore. From 
Newports News the Brazilian and United States mail steamship 
line. In order to give a fair idea, however, of the facilities af- 
forded Richmond, in the way of water transportation, we have 
recourse to the Report of the Harbor Master for the year 1881. 
Number of vessels arriving at Port of Richmond : steamers 560, 
capacity 490,000 tons; sailing vessels, 861, tonnage 205,000; 
class: barks, 48; brigs, 35; schooners, 778. This does not in- 
clude river steamers, tug-boats or small sailing vessels. 



CHAPTER III. 

GENERAL MANUFACTURING EXHIBIT. 

CAPITAL INVESTED, HANDS EMPLOYED, AGGREGATE 
SALES, SPECIAL ADVANTAGES, WATER AND STEAM 
POWER, LABOR SUPPLY, RAW .MATERIAL AVAILABLE, 
FOSTERING AUXILIARIES. 

The manufacturing labored, if possible, under greater disad- 
vantages, after the war, than any other Richmond interest. 
•Nevertheless, its progress has been most rapid and successful. 
Taking the statistics for 1881 as compiled for the annual trade 
edition of the Richmond Dispatch, we have the following showing 
as regards kinds of manufactories in operation, capital in busi- 
ness, and annual sales : 



Kind of Manufactories. 



Agricultural implements, machiner}", &c... 

Ale, beer and mineral waters 

Bags and cotton bagging 

Bakers 

Bark and sumac 

Barrels and hogsheads , 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights 

Blank-books, paper-boxes and paper-bags. 
Boots, shoes, leather, and leather goods.... 

Boxes, cigar, tobacco and packing 

Brand and stencil cutters 

Bricks 

Brooms, wood and willow-ware 

Burial-caskets 

Candy and confections 

Carriages, wagons, carts, &c 



U 



186,500 

27,500 

60,000 

75,100 

153,000 

32,840 

9,800 

115,000 

195,210 

164,000 

700 

105,000 

142,500 

5,000 

77,500 

122,425 



< 



510,000 
39,000 

94,980 
241,200 
242,300 
461,800 

95400 
395,700 
916,800 
338,400 
3,300 
160,000 
400,250 

15,000 
396,500 
201,450 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



23 



TABLE— Continued. 



Kind of Manufactories. 



I U < 

Carpenters and builders ' $50,500 $ 324,900 

Cij^ars and cijjarettes 324,915 1,346,025 

Coffee, spice and flavorinj^ mills 48,000 235,000 

Clothing, and merchant-tailors 203,300 490,500 

Cotton factories 280,000 410,000 

Drugs, medicines, ineat-jiiice and bitters 298,200 ! 982.300 

Dyeing and bleaching 8,000 23,500 

Earthen and stone-ware 5-5oo 12,000 

Engraving on wood and lithographing 29,000 ' 64,000 

Fertilizers 690,000 1,150,000 

Flour and corn-meal 1,331,500 3,148,661 

Furniture, mattresses, &c 111,000 1 306,000 

Granite-works 395-"oo 301.500 

Gunsmiths and sporting apparatus 12,100 1 20,500 

Hair-workers 11,500 j 37.ooo 

Iron and nail wt)rks, machine works, foun- ' 

dries, stt)ve works, architectural iron works, ] 

tobacco fixtures, &c 1,642,000 5.337. 590 

Lubricators, oil and grease 28,000 [ 82,000 

Marble and stoneworks 23,000 74,000 

Nets and seines 6,000 I 7,000 

Newspajjers and job printers 181,300 | 392,500 

Paper mills ." 125,000 190,000 

Picture frames and ornamental wood-work... 67,000 176,500 

Pork packing 115,000 1,300,000 

Rectifiers....! 40,000 218,000 

Saddles, harness and horse collars 73,35o 182,600 

Sash, blinds, doors, &c I 112,000 449.9oo 

Saw, wire and mill-fixture works ! 17,000 51,500 

Slate works 40,000 50,000 

Soap and candles ; 40,000 65,500 

Sulphuric acid and sulphate ot ammonia 20,000 10,000 

Tanners 30,000 70.500 

Tin-ware, gas-fittings and plumbing 140,975 446,700 

Tobacco — chewing and smoking 2,831,000 9,071,000 

Tobacco — stemmeries and reprizers 420,000 825,000 

Trunks and valises 10,000 46,000 

Type foundry 10,000 41.500 

Underwear — ladies and gentlemen 78,500 351,000 

Totals $11,320,815 $32,802,756 



24 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

The total number of manufactories was 675. Total number 
of hands permanently employed 17,648 — an increase in opera- 
tives over the year 1880 of 716. The increase of annual sales 
over 1880 was $8,097,864, or about 33 per cent., and increase of 
capital invested $2,628,198. These figures do not include a 
number of minor establishments. That this, however, is only an 
earnest of Richmond's possibilities as a manufacturing centre, 
let us present seriatim a few points which must strike every 
practical mind. 

FIRST— WATER POWER ADVANTAGES. 

* From the three-mile lock, on the line of the Richmond and 
Alleghany railroad to tide-water, there is a fall of 84 feet. With 
the lowest flow of the river to be expected, in a long series of 
years, viz: i,oco cubic feet per second, this fall produces 9,500 
horse-power theoretically, of which 7,600 can be made available 
by the employment of the best turbine wheels. The total amount 
of this theoretical power, now appropriated and put to use by 
various manufactories in Richmond and Manchester, is 4,200; the 
remainder 5,300 horse-power theoretically, or 4,160 actual, can 
be readily and economically made available. From Bosher's 
Dam to tide-water is a fall of 116 feet, over which the above flow 
of the river would produce 13,500 theoretical horse-power, or 
10,000 actual. The water shed of the James river above Rich- 
mond is about 8,000 square miles. The lowest flow given above 
is therefore a yield of 0.125 cubic feet per second from each 
square mile. The Connecticut river, with about the same water 
shed, yields at Holyoke, Massachusetts, about 0.30 cubic feet per 
second per square mile, as the lowest flow, and the Merrimac 
river at Lowell is relied upon for more than double this rate per 
square mile. A large part of this difference, however, is, of 
course, due to the different character of the water sheds, but still 
a large part to the fact that these two New England rivers, and 
especially the Merrimac, are used extensively for power along 
their entire length, and each little mill acts, to some extent, as a 
regulator. The James river with its thirteen large dams, and 
eleven minor ones, built by the James river and Kanawha 



'*These facts were expressly compiled for this publication by a com- 
petent hydrostatic engineer. 




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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 25 

Canal Company, and the ten dams on the Rivanna river, one 
of its largest tributaries, possesses great facilities for the in- 
crease of the lowest flow, which, although not now available, 
could be readily made so. These dams form a series of 
ponds, with a total surface area of 291,200,000 square feet. 
If one foot of depth were available for storage, this would 
yield 168 cubic feet per second for a period of twenty days, 
to help out in the dry season. If two feet were available, 
the quantity would be doubled, or the same amount spread 
over twice as long a time. In addition to this, which can 
be immediately and cheaply taken advantage of, the natural 
growth 01 small industries along the Valley, which the mineral 
and agricultural wealth of the country must foster, will con- 
tinually tend to average the yearly flow of the river. Again — 
the character of the upper water shed of the river, with its 
numerous tributaries, flowing long distances through immense 
furrows, between parallel ridges, now approaching so closely as 
to almost bar the passage of the stream, and at other points form- 
ing wide valleys, makes it possible, at warrantable expense, to 
form large basins for storage. 

In view of all these considerations, it is a low estimate to say that 
the James river can be made to yield, as it can be put to use, a 
total of 20,000 efiective horse-power over the Falls between 
Bosher's Dam and tide-water. The amount of power now put 
to use at Holyoke, Mass., which is rated as the largest developed 
water-power in the country, may be estimated as between 8,000 
and 9,000 horse-power. The Hudson River Water-Power and 
Paper Manufacturing Company estimate their available power at 
6,000 horse-power, and claim to be the second largest. By prop- 
erly planning the improvements necessary to make the large 
reserve of power available — improvements which the south side 
of James river are admirably adapted to allow — the whole Falls 
plantation, opposite Rocketts, could be converted into a manu- 
facturing plant — a plant virtually on the seaboard, and the centre 
of railroad facilities. 

SECOND— STEAM-POWER FACILITIES. 

It is only necessary to glance at the country through which the 
various railroad lines that centre at Richmond pass to see that 



26 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Steam-power can also be employed at the minimum cost. The 
steam coals of the various basins are, it has been practically 
demonstrated, of the best and most economical quality; easily 
mined and cheaply transported. 

THIRD— LABOR SUPPLY. 

The labor supply of Richmond is equal to any demand and of 
a character easily adapted to the requirements of most any in- 
dustry. In fact nothing has more clearly and satisfactorily 
demonstrated the resources of our population — the white popu- 
lation particularly — than its accommodation tt) the exigencies of 
the new regime. The negro in the heavier work of rolling mills, 
and as a stevedore, &c., is a most valuable hand, while in the 
manufacture of plug tobacco he practically enjoys a labor mo- 
nopoly. In temper he is tractable, and can be easily taught. 
The white artizan class has of late years absorbed elements from 
nearly every walk in life — disposition as well as necessity leading 
many to embrace mechanical pursuits, who under the old system 
in the South would not have had either the stimulus or the incli- 
nation to do so. The prejudice in favor of a profession is fast 
becoming a thing of the past. Many of the owners of manu- 
facturing establishments have served their time during the last 
seventeen years. Prior to the war the employment of fe- 
male operatives in manufacturing establishments was the ex- 
ception — in fact there were few callings in which they could 
have been employed — even had it been customary or profitable. 
Now, however, the industrial element among white women and 
girls is very large and is constantly increasing, and daily new 
industries are being developed which are open to them In the 
manufacture of cotton goods, paper, cigarettes, tobacco bags, 
paper bags, underwear, clothing, paper boxes, and in other light 
•employments they are able to meet the most exacting demands 
for celerity and neatness of work. For the most part these ope- 
ratives are reasonably well educated, are thoroughly reliable, 
and are not only contented but happy in their occupations. 
Moreover, they are naturally refined and art loving, a gift that 
could be utilized to great advantage in the manufacture of fine 
pottery, or any other industry requiring an art perception. It is 
a source of peculiar gratification to note in this connection the 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 27 

fact that our employers of female labor throw every safeguard 
possible around their employees, thus protecting them against 
temptations to which they are at many other manufacturing 
centres too often exposed. 

FOURTH— RAW MATERIALS IN PART AVAILABLE FOR 
MANUFACTURING PURPOSES. 

By Richmond and Danville System. — Wheat, corn, to- 
bacco, cotton, kaolin, feldspar, mica, barytes, clays for building- 
brick and fire-brick, graphite, gold, iron and copper ores in great 
variety; ochre, granite, coal, limestone, quick-lime, lead, man- 
ganese, carbonate magnesia, soapstone, asbestos, hornblende, 
nickel, slate, sandstone, brownstone, buhrstone, marbles, white 
and variegated ; glass sands, agate, jasper, silver, sulphur, turpen- 
tine, tar, rosin, asphalt, sumac, various minerals for ground 
paints; oak, pine, walnut, poplar, maple, willow, locust, plum, 
hickory, gum, dogwood, birch, cherry, persimmon, and some 
forty other varieties of wood of commercial value. 

By Chesapeake and Ohio System. — Wheat, corn, wool, to- 
bacco, coal, iron, gold ores, copper, and iron pyrites, lead, anti- 
mony, manganese, salt, kaolin, hre clay, hoop-poles, cement, 
limestone, sandstone, hides, staves, leather, lime, bark, pig-iron, 
plaster, sumac, petroleum, and numerous varieties of woods for 
cabinet and machinery purposes and building. 

By Atlantic Co.\st Line. — Cotton, corn, wheat, sumac, rice, 
deer tongue, jute, tobacco, tar, pitch, rosin, turpentine, coal, 
sumac, lumber for building, and nearly all the woods available by 
the Richmond and Danville system. 

By Richmond and Alleghany Railroad. — Coal, copper, 
wool, oats, gold ores, limestone, cement, manganese, barytes, fire 
clay, kaolin, staves and hoop-poles, granite, leather, sumac, glass 
sand, hides, plaster, wheat, corn, tobacco, sandstone, mica, slate, 
and the woods found along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio 
system. 

By Norfolk and Western System. — Through the Alle- 
ghany connection with this road there are available to Rich- 
mond, among other articles, corn, wheat, oats, iron, lead, zinc and 
copper ores, salt, plaster, hides, cattle, wool, cotton, and numerous 
commercial woods. 



28 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

These lists only embrace leading and the more bulky articles. 
The materials used, in whole or part, for many industries — and 
which the statement of the general sub-division of Richmond 
manufactories shows are essential — are very numerous By water 
there is also available a large variety of raw material for the 
manufacture of fertilizers, wooden-ware, &c. A detailed exhibit 
from at least two of the railroad systems — the Richmond and 
Danville and Chesapeake and Ohio — is now in the Exhibition 
building at Boston. 

FIFTH— FOSTERING AUXILIARIES. 

Richmond, as the capital of the State, is the point for all State 
gatherings of any importance, and the scene of the meeting of 
many inter-State conventions. The historic interest attaching to 
it alone has made it very popular for such purposes. Further, 
it is the headquarters of the State Agricultural Society, which 
holds annual exhibitions near the city for the display not only of 
agricultural products and machinery, but all classes of machinery 
and manufactured goods. These fairs bring together people 
from all parts of the country. The merchants from Virginia and 
the South avail themselves of the opportunity to replenish their 
stocks. The subject of rebuilding the Mechanics' Institute, de- 
stroyed by fire, is being agitated by the public-spirited business 
men, and it is only a question of a short time when the matter 
will take practical shape. Another organization which promises 
to exercise a decided influence in the advancement of the indus- 
trial arts is the Richmond Art Association, now in its sixth year. 
Already it has opened a new field for the employment of ladies, 
in stimulating the work of porcelain decoration. 

SIXTH— PRESENT AND FUTURE DEMANDS. 

There is now a pressing call for every class of article of 
Richmond manufacture, but this is little more than the sugges- 
tion of what may be reasonably expected for the future. The 
west and northwest are being rapidly filled up, and the tide of 
immigration must inevitably seek the fruitful fields of the South. 
In fact it has already turned in this direction. Whether this new 
population engage in agriculture — as a large percentage of it. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 29 

will — in mining, or in the ruder manufacturing pursuits, there 
is virtually no end to the demand that must be created for the 
production of skilled labor in the mechanic arts. The manifest 
<iestiny of the southern and southwestern country, still in the 
infancy of its development in many respects, reached by the rail- 
road lines diverging from Richmond, is such as will compel the 
use of an interminable variety of manufactured articles, for labor- 
saving, comfort and convenience. With Richmond nearly two 
hundred miles nearer the supply of raw material, and the same 
distance nearer the "fields of demand — practically four hundred 
miles saved as a question of freights — than any northern manu- 
facturing centre, and with the other advantages heretofore set 
forth, it would be against the natural order of things if it should 
fail to influence this entire trade. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MANUFACTURES IN DETAIL. 

THE BANKING BASIS— THE COAL MOVEMENT— THE IRON 
INTEREST— MILLING— A COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF IN- 
DUSTRIES. 

It has been shown that Richmond is the concentering point of 
a number of railroad lines — three of which, at least, constitute 
great trunk systems, opening up to it a territory unsurpassed in 
richness and variety of natural resources. That this territory 
can fail of development, to its fullest, is contrary to the law of 
capital and of progress. To the south, southwest, and west, the 
attractions of climate and soil, are the prophecy of a teeming 
population, which will require a basis of distribution of the largest 
capacity. It is only necessary to glance at the map, to be im- 
pressed not only with the distance saved as before stated, but the. 
time as well, from this territory in favor of Richmond as against 
the more northern markets. It is only necessary to bear in mind 
the city's connections by rail and by water with the North, to be 
convinced of the ability of our business men to place in the depots, 
and on the wharves, at bottom freight rates, all the necessary 
articles that may be demanded by the Southern trade, which are 
not at present manufactured in the city. The Richmond mer- 
chants in buying North, buy on an equality with the Northern 
jobbers, and the superadded freight rates from Richmond to the 
northern points of supply count as nothing to the consumer 
or merchant South, by reason of the greatly reduced cost of 
doing business in Richmond. In fact, the trade south has on all 
northern articles bought in Richmond, the difference in the cost 
of transportation between Richmond and the North, in its favor? 
to say nothing of what may be conceded, through the decreased 
expense of handling alluded to ; while on articles of Richmond 
manufacture still greater advantages are a natural sequence. 
These facts, it must be apparent to every clear-headed business 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 31 

man, claim the consideration, not only of the southern buyer, 
but of capital seeking investment. It has also been demonstrated 
that Richmond possesses every other advantage regarded by 
capitalists as essential to the building up of a great city, and a 
great centre of supj>ly and distribution — such as water power, 
healthy location, security in time of war, tractable labor, &c., — 
but in presenting the most forcible and conclusive argument in 
support of the claims advanced we have again to revert to " what 
has been done by the people with the limited means at their dis- 
posal and the drawbacks that beset them." This it is true has 
been outlined in general terms, but in order to convey its full 
significance, it is competent to show the status of the various 
interests more in detail 

FINANCE AND BANKING. 

In April, 1865, Richmond as a corporation was bankrupt. 
One-half of the taxable realty had been swept away, and the peo- 
ple were without a currency — without even the means of barter. 
Today City bonds are above par — 8's 128, 6's 112J8, 5's 103 
bid — and are counted as among the best securities in the market. 
The banks of the city are eleven in number— four of them Na- 
tional banks The total banking capital is $2,200,000, with a 
surplus of $555,000. Besides, all the local insurance compa- 
nies are lenders of money, and much is secured through re-dis- 
counts by banks North. During the panic of 1873 the solidity of 
these institutions was most satisfactorily demonstrated in that 
they weathered the storm, when banks were failing all around 
them. There is also a regular stock board in the city, which is 
most conservatively conducted — no "wild cat" securities of any 
sort being allowed upon the call. The members are all brokers 
of well known intef^rity. The local msurance companies are all 
safe institutions. 

THE COAL MOVEMENT. 

The coal movement is a most important factor in its relations 
to the manufacturing interests of Richmond. The supply is 
obtained over live lines of transportation, and from four fields, 
the West Virginia, the Midlothian, the Bright Hope, and the 
Henrico mines. The three latter are within a few miles of the 
4 



32 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

city. For steaming, heating, puddling and smelting, and all 
other purposes for which coals can be used, they are held to be 
as valuable and economical as any coals mined anywhere in 
America, and the deposits are as yet but partially devel- 
oped. It is estimated that in the immediate neighborhood 
of Richmond there is enough coal to meet the demand of hun- 
dreds of years. As an article of shipment it also occupies a 
prominent place in the trade of Richmond. During the year 
1 88 1, there were shipped from the Chesapeake and Ohio wharves 
alone 213,907 tons. 

IRON-WORKS AND MACHINE-SHOPS. 

The iron interest has made steady and successful progress in 
all departments for a series of years. The ore beds of Virginia 
are in such close proximity to coal and fluxing supplies, labor is 
so plentiful and transportation so convenient, that pig-iron for 
conversion into castings, wrought iron and steel, and forged iron, 
can be placed in the mills, shops and foundries at bottom figures. 
There are now over 4,000 men engaged in the several iron- 
working establishments in Richmond, and their productions 
represent nearly every article for which iron can be utilized. 
The amount of sales of this interest for 1881, was $5,337,590. 

Railroad Materials and Wrought Iron Specialties. 
— Rails, spikes, fish-bars, bolts, freight cars, car wheels, axles, 
bridge iron, bridge bolts, railroad chairs. In addition to this, 
ground has been broken and shops are in process of erection for 
the building of freight and passenger locomotives and cars on an 
extensive scale, and the city does a large jobbing trade in loco- 
motive head-lights, steam-cocks and gauges, lanterns, brasses 
and railroad supplies generally. This business has been rendered 
necessary and lucrative by the railroad interests centering at 
Richmond. In the establishments vianufachcring the railroad 
material indicated, are also turned out bar-iron for general use, 
horse and mule shoes, nails, gratings, nuts and screws in great 
variety. The nail industry is the largest of any city in the South, 
and the mills are now greatly increasing their capacity. 

Engine Building. — The engine builders were, during last 
year, and are now, pressed to the utmost building capacity of 
their shops. During 1881, there were over 600 engines turned 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 33 

out in Richmond, a single concern shipping, during the busy 
season, an average of two engines a day. Among the specialties 
of the engine and machine shops, are portable engines, station- 
ary engines, agricultural engines, locomotive boilers, plain cylin- 
der, return tubular, return flue, and upright boilers, smoke-stacks, 
tanks and general boiler work, pumps and fittings for engines 
and boilers, steam fire-engines, mill machinery, hydraulic presses 
and pumps, shafting and pulleys, and saw-mills. The greater 
part of the engines manufactured are sold south and southwest. 

Castings. — In this department the stove business deserves a 
prominent place, Richmond supplyin|;^iiammtui(i..4nide south, 
■west and southwest. We also or^Bd^i^ByKii-^l£l^lS\vh^^^ 
mill gearing, plow points, verandas and railings, ornamen^l iron 
■work, piping, and an endless nim^r of smaller articles^, in fact 
it is unnecessary to go out of R^^i^ond for any piece j^ casting. 

Miscellaneous. — Tobacconis»S^6^fcij|g«pSM^t'ks presses, 
shapes, pumps, tobacco knives, stean^t^yinji ippafatus — saws, 
files, edge tools, fire grates and builders' materials. 

TOBACCO MACHINERY. 

Besides the " tobacconists' fixtures," mentioned under the gen- 
eral head of " Iron Works and Machine Shops," the manufacture 
of "Tobacco Machinery" merits a distinct classification, as fol- 
lows : — Elevators, leaf tobacco trucks, lump boxes, tobacco box 
groovers, flattening mills, blocks, billets, cutters for smoking to- 
bacco bags, pot or finishing mills, power cutters, smoking tobacco 
cutters, tobacco stem -grinders, tobacco fans, lump machines, and 
granulators. 

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. 

The manufacture of agricultural implements is hardly second 
to any business of the city, in the different implements manu- 
factured, and in adding to the general business revenue. In 
considering this interest it should be noticed that the woods 
used are all right at the doors of the city. The list is too nu- 
merous to detail, but we give the leading articles, exclusive 
of agricultural engines : — threshing machines, horse powers, 
plows, harrows, corn planters, separators, cultivators, fertilizer 
distributers, horse rakes, gleaners, garden and field rollers, grind- 



34 RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. 

Stone fixtures, cider mills, hand and power corn shellers, road 
scrapers, peanut pickers, shellers and separators, barrows, sausage 
machines and stufFers, gardening- tools, straw and feed cutters^ 
lifts, suction pumps and well fixtures, farm carts and wagons, and 
cotton presses. Agencies are established in Richmond for all the 
patent agricultural machines of recognized value, as well as for 
such domestic labor-saving machinery as are not manufactured in. 
the city. 

THE MILLING INTEREST. 

The capacity of the Richmond flour mills, with the improved 
processes, is about 4,000 barrels of flour daily, and the Rich- 
mond brands have always held first rank in the South American 
market — in fact, as before noted, their superiority has been con- 
ceded from the first decade of the present century. Prior to the 
late civil war, the flour trade was a double source of revenue. 
A regular line of barks sailed between Richmond and the South 
American ports — carrying out flour, and returning laden with 
Brazilian coffees, and West Indian sugars and molasses, thus 
making the city one of the largest markets for these articles in 
the Union. The interruption of the war of course weaned much 
of this trade from us, but it has been gradually reviving, and, 
now that our railroad connections are so complete, it is confi- 
dently predicted that we will again become large direct import- 
ers. The statistics of the trade of Richmond with Brazil for the 
year 1881 show: value of coffee imported, $59,230; value of 
flour exported, $1,650,622; number of barrels of flour exported, 
223,496. In addition to this there were also shipped to Brazil 
from West Point (port of Richmond), 76,777 barrels — making 
a grand total of 300,273. Number of vessels engaged in the 
trade, seventy-five sailing vessels, and nine steamships — total, 
eighty-six ; the mills also produce a good deal of fine family 
flour for home trade, together with large quantities of meal — the 
greater proportion of which latter article is shipped to the south. 
Nearly all, if not all, of the wheat ground for the BraziHan mar- 
ket is from Virginia or Western States in the same parallel of 
latitude. 

THE FLOUR AND GRAIN TRADE. 

The flour and grain trade of Richmond, independent of what is 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 35 

known and termed the " milling interest," has received an immense 
impulse in late years, and the city is last becoming one of the most 
prominent grain markets on the Atlantic coast. Flour is received 
for distribution, not only from the \'irginia mills, but from the 
west, in large quantities, and the grain supply is drawn over 
three lines of road, reaching the west and northwest. During the 
year a grain elevator has been erected near the Chesapeake and 
Ohio railway depot, and from the first month of its completion 
has been pressed to its full capacity — over 450,000 bushels. 
To facilitate transactions in grain there is a regular "Corn 
and Flour Exchange " The overplus above mill consumption 
is shipped north and south or exported. Richmond enjoys a 
fine trade in wheat with both Spain and Portugal. 

THE TOBACCO INTEREST. 

By reason of seniority as a Virginia staple, and the amount of 
manipulation it requires from first to last, tobacco should prob- 
ably be placed first on the list of Richmond industries. It has 
in time been the source of more large fortunes, and the cause of 
more legislation, than anything produced in this State. During 
the year 1881, the total tax paid the government, on tobacco, 
cigars and cigarettes, was $2,282,239.53. Number of hands em- 
ployed on plug and smoking tobacco, 4,821; on cigars and 
cigarettes, 775; in stemming and re prizing, 579; total, 6,175. 
Amount of tobacco manufactured, 17,500,000 pounds. The total 
amount of internal revenue paid the government b)' the Rich- 
mond district from the close of the war to June 30, 1882, was 
$37,612,601. 

Leaf Tobacco. — Most of the leaf tobacco is sold by certified 
sample of inspectors, at auction on the Tobacco Exchange. 
The leaf tobacco year ends October 30th, but as a basis for cal- 
culation we give the statistics from October, 1880, to December 
I, 1 88 1, as far as they could be gathered : 

Inspections. — From October, 1880, to October, 1881, 30,921 
hogsheads, 5,084 tierces; from October, 1881, to December i, 
1881, 4,184 hogsheads, 333 tierces. Total, 35,105 hogsheads and 
5,417 tierces. 

Deliveries. — From October, 1880, to October, 1881, 32,615 
hogsheads, 4,963 tierces; from October, 1881, to December i. 



36 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

1 88 1, 5,003 hogsheads 450 tierces. Total, 37,618 hogsheads and 
5,413 tierces. 

Foreign Shipments Direct. — From October, 1881, to Decem- 
ber I, 1881, 867 hogsheads, 73 tierces. 

Coastwise Shipments. — From October, 1881, to December i, 
1881, 1,242 hogsheads, 176 tierces. 

Stock on Hand. — December i, 1881 : Inspected, 10,011 hogs- 
heads, 314 tierces; uninspected, 755 hogsheads, 21 tierces. Total, 
10,766 hogsheads and 335 tierces. 

Loose Tobacco Receipts — From October, 1880, to October, 
1881, 2,823,770 pounds; from October, 1880, to December i, 
1880, 53,510 pounds; from October, 1881, to December i, 1881, 
332,405. Excess for 1881, 278,895 pounds. 

Between private individuals and the buyers for foreign govern- 
ments, most of the stemmed and re-prized tobaccos are exported. 

Plug and Smoking Tobacco. — This branch of the tobacco 
industry, of course, employs the largest number of hands and the 
largest amount of capital. The tobaccos used are Virginia, North 
Carolina and Western, and the trade extends all over the world. 
The Western, Southern and Australian trade is particularly heavy. 
In the commoner grades of tobacco nearly any sound leaf can be 
worked up, whether Virginia, North Carolina or Western; but 
tobaccos from certain sections of Virginia and North Carolina, 
are used almost exclusively in the highest grades, and Richmond 
brands, by reason of our proximity to the source of supply, enjoy 
a position of the first importance. The manufactured tobacco 
exported in 1881 was 3,566,698^ pounds. The total number of 
tobacco factories in 1881 was 55. This is exclusive of stem- 
meries, reprizing establishments, and cigarette and cigar fac- 
tories. 

Cigars and Cigarettes. — Cigars are manufactured largely 
for the Southern and Western trade, and some few for export. 
The tobaccos used are principally Connecticut, Havana and Penn- 
sylvania, which are bought in large quantities. The brands stand 
high, both at home and in the South, and the trade is rapidly in- 
creasing. The Richmond cigar-makers have fully demonstrated, 
as the demand upon them shows, that they can in every way 
compete with northern markets. The climate of Richmond is 
especially well adapted to the manipulation of cigar tobaccos. 
The manufacture of cigarettes is a comparatively new industry in 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 37 

Richmond, but one that has grown beyond all precedent, as the 
follovvingr comparative table of the productions of the last seven 
years will show : 

Date. No. of Cigarettes. 

1875 3,116,000 

1876 13,887,000 

1877 17,146,800 

1878 19,293,000 

1879 32,570.000 

1880 52,259,440 

188 1 65,000,000 

Of the total number manufactured in 18S1, 24,154,000 were 
exported. The tobaccos worked up are the bright, aromatic 
smokers of southern Virginia and northern and western North 
Carolina, which, owing to the small percentage of nicotine and 
nitrates they contain, give the Richmond cigarette the prefer- 
ence in all markets where pure tobaccos are appreciated. The 
bulk of the cigarettes used in the London clubs are made in 
Richmond. In rolling the cigarettes, labeling them, and putting 
them in packages, white girls are employed exclusively. 

SUMAC AND BARK. 

Sumac and bark mills may also be classed as recent features 
of Richmond industry. The gathering of sumac gives employ- 
ment to a great number of the poorer classes in the country, and 
the ground article stands high in the Northern market. Bark 
for tanning and other purposes is accessible on all the railroads. 

LEATHER, LEATHER FINDINGS, HARNESS, &c. 

Tanning is carried on in the city quite extensively, and in 
leather, leather findings, harness, &c., the business is steadily in- 
creasing. It would surprise many of our own citizens to know 
how many hands are engaged in this business and the amount 
of improved machinery employed. Richmond harness and sad- 
dle work enjoys a reputation in the South second to that of 
no city in the country for excellence in quality and reasonable 
prices. All classes of the best work are made, and the demand 
is constant. The wholesale manufacture of shoes is also rapidly 
increasing, the capacity of the various factories being estimated 
at 2,500 pairs per day. 



38 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



CARRIAGES, WAGONS, &c. 

Richmond manufactures the best quaUty of carriages, wagons, 
carts and vehicles generally. The number of hands engaged in 
this industry including blacksmiths and wheelwrights is over 500. 
And the wood and iron findings are to hand, and enable the trade 
to confidently enter the field of competition for all reliable work. 
In the last few years the success of the business has justified a 
decided expansion in manufacturing facilities. 

FURNITURE. 

The furniture trade is assuming most important proportions, 
and our cabinet makers are manufacturing every grade of furni- 
ture from the finest to the most ordinary. Nearly every kind of 
wood now used in this industry is easily available to Richmond, 
■even to the finest necessary for inlaid work. The woods in the 
railway displays at the Boston Exhibition will show the range. 
Richmond furniture is not only shipped south and west, but is . 
sent abroad. 

COOPERING AND BOX-MAKING. 

The demand from the Richmond mills, the pork-packing 
establishments, the nail factories, the tobacco and cigar facto- 
ries and jobbers, alone makes these mdustries count as a large 
factor in the city's manufactures. Hoop-poles and staves for 
■coopering, and lumber for the box factories, form a large item of 
transportation over all the railroads. The demand for such pro- 
ductions also extends outside of the city. 

SASH, BLINDS AND DOORS. 

In the sash, blind and door factories, about two hundred hands 
are employed, and the trade extends as far south as Georgia. 
All classes of fine and medium goods are produced. The mate- 
rial reaches Richmond over all the lines of railroad, to be sent 
back in manufactured form. Fine mouldings and stair-work 
are a specialty with some of the factories. 

COTTON FACTORIES. 

The cotton factories employ about 400 hands, mostly women, 
and the industry is annually becoming more important, owing to 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 39 

the accessibility of raw material. Cotton is now one of the chief 
-articles of transportation over the .southern roads, and the city is 
taking position as a cotton market. A feature of the trade 
is the barter of fertilizers lor cotton. In the cotton factories 
water-power is used exclusively. The materials turned out are 
<:otton cloths and yarns, and the coarser fabrics, but there is 
•every promise of the manufacture of prints in the near future. 
The woolen mill interest has not revived in Richmond since the 
■war, but there is the best sort of <3pening, not only for the man- 
ufacture of woolen cloths, but such specialties as hosiery, &c. 
The city has a large trade in wool, drawing it from every direc- 
tion, but especially from Piedmont and Southwestern Virginia, 
where particular attention is given to sheep-breeding, and the 
female labor is plentiful and well adapted tor such an enterprise. 

EARTHEN AND STONE-WARE. 

Potters' clay of the best quality is abundant in the vicinity of 
Richmond, and has stimulated a profitable busiiless in earthen 
■ware ; and the manufacture of fine china, &c., is only a question 
of a short time. In fact, a joint stock company for the manufac- 
ture of porcelain ware was formed last year, and a factory with 
all the improved machinery erected. This building was burned 
last spring, however, just as operations were about to be com- 
menced. All the material for the finest classes of this ware, such 
as kaolin, Hint and feldspar, is found in abundance in various por- 
tions of the State, and at other points easily accessible from 
Richmond. One immense bed of kaolin, of exceptional rare 
•quality, is located only eight miles from the city, immediately on 
the line of the Richmond and Danville railroad, and goods manu- 
factured entirely from Virginia material have been proven equal to 
any made in the United States. As before intimated, decorative 
art has received a great impetus lately, and the skilled labor for 
this department of porcelain manufacture is already at hand and 
anxious for employment. 

BAGS AND BAGGING. 

The wheat, flour, grain, smoking tobacco, and cotton trade 
makes this interest a necessity, which capital has not been slow 
io take advantage of. The manufacture of bags for flour for 



40 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

home consumption, and of smoking tobacco bags, is another 
interest nearly monopolized by women. The material for the 
manufacture of gunny bags is imported from India, but efforts 
are being made to raise it in Eastern North Carolina, with every 
prospect of success. 

PORK PACKING. 

Pork packing for the southern trade is carried on extensively^ 
the meat being bought in bulk and on the hoof not only from 
Virginia, but from the great western centres. It is distributed to- 
the extreme limits of southern railroad connections. The manu- 
facture of sausage for the southern trade is an especially large 
interest. 

CLOTHING AND UNDERWEAR. 

In clothing and underwear Richmond is also able to compete 
with the northern manufacturing centres, buying what material not 
manufactured at home to the best advantage, and utilizing female 
labor. The shirt factories here turn out as fine work as can be 
produced anywhere, and many of the finer cloths for suitings are 
imported directly. 

WOODEN-WARE, BROOMS AND WILLOW-WARE. 

These industries employ as many as 200 hands, many of them 
skilled, and for the production of all the articles embraced 
under this heading the material is not only plentiful but most 
convenient. Among the articles manufactured of cedar are tubs 
of all sizes, pails, cans, field cans, staff churns, cylinder churns^ 
well and horse buckets, and ice-pails, measures and keelers, 
the finish and thoroughness of work on which is not excelled 
•anywhere, as the showing at the Exhibition will demonstrate. 
The lumber is brought for the most part from the great swamps 
of Virginia and North Carolina. In the wooden-ware business 
there is a fine opening for the investment of capital, in the 
manufacture of the smaller articles, such as spools, trays, spoons, 
trenchers, rolling-pins, clothes-pins, &c. 

PAPER, BLANK BOOKS, PAPER BOXES, AND PAPER BAGS. 

The paper mills turn out all grades of news, book and wrapping 
papers and paper twines — a large quantity of the wrapping paper 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 41 

being consumed in the manufacture of paper bags. In book- 
binding and blank-book making, Richmond estabhshments cannot 
be excelled, either in low prices or good work. The manufacture 
of paper boxes is a prominent and increasing industry, and all 
the establishments are worked to their full capacity. Among the 
articles manufactured we mention smoking tobacco boxes, pill 
boxes in endless variety, powder boxes, confectioners' boxes and 
toilet boxes. These latter are of every design, and have given 
Richmond a reputation all over the country. In neatness of 
work, beauty of finish and general ornamentation they are not 
excelled by the finest French products. This industry gives 
employment to about 600 hands, most of them women and girls. 

GRANITE AND MARBLE CUTTING. 

Granite and marble cutting is a lucrative occupation in the 
items of preparing building material and in monumental work 
for home trade, but this is a small part of the industry. Rich- 
mond granite is known and in demand all over the country for 
street paving, and some of the finest work on several of the pub- 
lic buildings at Washington was executed here. The supply is 
practically inexhaustible, and for toughness and power of resist- 
ance to the action of fire and the weather it has no superior. 
The Richmond custom-house, which is built of this granite, was, 
at the great fire of the evacuation of the city by the Confederate 
troops, the centre of the "burnt district," and suffered no damage. 
Marble of a superior quality is, as before indicated, found on the 
line of several of the railroads leading into the city. Some of 
the varieties are beautifully adapted for the manufacture of soda 
fountains, mantels and furniture tops. 

WOOD ENGRAVING, LITHOGRAPHING AND PRINTING. 

These kindred occupations give employment to over 300 hands, 
exclusive of the printers engaged on newspaper work. One of 
the greatest sources of revenue to all of them is the demand for 
labels for tobacco boxes, cigar boxes, general ornamentation for 
fancy paper boxes, and railroad work, though the finest work is 
also turned out in the way of check and draft books, bonds, 
stocks, show cards, &c. 



42 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



CARPENTERING AND BUILDING. 

The number of men engaged in this business may be fairly 
estimated at i,ooo, and the building operations going on at pres- 
ent give them all employment. The Richmond builders are a 
superior class of men, and trouble between them and their em- 
ployees rarely, if ever, occurs. In truth, it may be said that 
nowhere is community of interest between employer and em- 
ployee in all industries more generally recognized than in 
Richmond. Distinct from carpentering and building are the 
industries of slating, tinning and plumbing, in which about 350 
hands are employed. 

BRICK MAKING. 

The clays about Richmond are of a superior quality for brick 
making, and the industry is a source of revenue for a large ele- 
ment of population. 

SOAP AND CANDLES. 

The Richmond factories turn out the best qualities of laundry 
and toilet soap in great variety, which, with their candle produc- 
tion, find a ready market at home, south and west. 

RECTIFIERS. 

This business involves a large amount of capital, and supplies' 
a very large territory in the South. The spirits employed are 
chiefly from the Valley of Virginia and the West. 

CANNED GOODS. 

The adaptability of the country circumjacent to Richmond 
to the raising of all sorts of fruits and vegetables, has made the 
canning industry one of very considerable magnitude. A special 
feature of the canneries in and around Richmond is that the 
materials are either raised especially for the purpose, on the 
farms of the proprietors, or are the overplus, never the refuse 
of the market-garden production. The area under cultivation 
directly attached to the canneries, is about 1,500 acres. During 
the busy season about 700 hands are employed, and the total 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 43 

packing capacity of the industry is 70,000 cases of 25 cans each. 
A large quantity of the goods put up is exported, and there 
is no reason why the canning business should not be greatly 
increased. 

CANDY AND CONFECTIONERY AND BAKING. 

The candy factories do a thriving business in both plain and 
fancy candies. Even before the war our candies had a reputation 
in the country accessible to Richmond, which reputation has 
been more than sustained in late years. The baking of cakes 
and fancy crackers for shipment is also an important item. The 
business gives employment to over 200 hands ; and the facilities 
of our flour market give it advantages that must be evident to 
buyers. 

FERTILIZERS. 

The means of distribution for such goods, especially south- 
ward, being so exceptionally good at Richmond, induced the 
erection here of not less than five factories for the preparation of 
chemical manures, and they all do a large business. Their trade 
covers six States and is continually expanding. Richmond has 
two acid chambers and one factory for the production of sulphate 
of ammonia, erected during the past two years. With the ability 
to secure the bulk of the raw material used by sail-ship, no point 
can produce such goods to greater advantage, certainly, as stated, 
for the very large consuming region south of us. 

LUBRICATORS, AXLE GREASE, &c. 

The railroad interest and machine shops of the city have fos- 
tered a great expansion in the manufacture of these articles, and 
year by year both the capital and number of hands engaged in 
the business have steadily increased. The overplus above home 
consumption is large, but finds ready sale. 

TIN-WARE. 

The manufacture of tin-ware is a specialty with a number of 
establishments, and the articles turned out embrace everything 
for which tin can be used. The large negro population in the 
South creates a good demand for tin utensils alone. 



44 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



COFFEE AND SPICE MILLS. 

The coffee and spice and flavoring mills manufacture full lines 
of all articles known to the trade as belonging under this head. 

TRUNKS AND VALISES. 

The manufacture of trunks and valises is a comparative new- 
industry, but the results have fully justified the investment of 
capital in this direction. 

SULPHURIC ACID, MEAT JUICE, &c. 

The production of sulphuric acid, meat juice, bitters, and pro- 
prietary articles of various kinds, is an important consideration,, 
both in the matter of capital and labor employed. 

TYPE AND ELECTROTYPING. 

The making of type and electrotypes is a successful and in- 
creasing business, and complete outfits can be supplied for the 
largest job, book and newspaper establishments. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Under the head of "Miscellaneous" we include a large variety 
of industries ; among them gun-smithing, hair- working, net and 
seine making, brand cutting, dyeing and bleaching, ale, beer 
and mineral water botthng, scroll sawing, &c., which afford sup- 
port to a large number of people. Every day new enterprises 
are springing up, and it is safe to say that there are hidden away 
from general observation hundreds of little shops not included in 
the table of manufactories given elsewhere, the aggregate of 
whose production is far from trifling. 

SHIP BUILDING, &c. 

In closing this chapter, there are two other points we deem 
especially worthy of consideration : ist. The war demonstrated 
that Richmond was impregnable in time of war, and it is a fact 
that nearly all cities of any size in the world are inland. 2d. 
While our capitalists are already large owners in sailing vessels,, 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 45 

With sufficient depth of water— which, it is beyond question, can 
be obtained— there is no reason why the city should not become 
a most desirable place for ship building^. Operatives can work 
the year round with comfort, and all the materials needed for 
such an enterprise are readily available The real estate busi- 
ness is in the hands of a superior class of men, and capitalists 
wishing to invest will be afforded every accommodation in ex- 
amining such property as may be on the market. 



CHAPTER V. 
THE JOBBING TRADE. 

HOW IT HAS BEEN BUILT UP— RICHMOND THE CLOSEST,. 
CHEAPEST AND MOST NATURAL MARKET FOR THE 
SOUTH— LIST OF JOBBING ENTERPRISES— SOME POTENT 
REASONS WHY THE TRADE WILL CONTINUE TO IN- 
CREASE. 

The jobbing trade — the principal distributing channel of all 
manufactures and commerce — has, in attaining its present pro- 
portions, had multitudinous difficulties to overcome, but has 
finally secured for Richmond a name as a base of supply second 
to that of no city on the Atlantic Seaboard. The accomplish- 
ment of such a result is not only indicative of the energy, enter- 
prise and public spirit of our merchants, but evidence /(?r .y^ of the 
city's natural advantages. At the close of the war Richmond 
had, we reiterate, everything to contend with. The South was 
drained, and it was compelled to have supplies. The city had 
neither the capital nor transportation facilities to furnish them. 
The northern markets were not slow to appreciate their opportu- 
nity, and before Richmond had regained the local trade enjoyed 
prior to the war, they had virtually occupied the whole Southern 
field. The lines of transportation naturally discriminated in their 
favor, and their ability to give better accommodations was a the- 
ory, if not a fact, that militated against any representation that 
Richmond could make, even in the territory immediately accessi- 
ble. Nevertheless, step by step, the Richmond salesmen followed 
the extension of the railroad lines, slowly but steadily introducing 
their samples, until not only the people, but the railroad corpora- 
tions, alive to self-interest, began to take cognizance of their 
claims. It was a fact apparent, that wherever Richmond got a 
foot-hold it was able to remain ; and when once the tide of trade 
set in this direction, the flow was continuous and increasing. 
How far the railroads were impressed with this is told by the 
most cursory examination of the maps accompanying this publi- 
cation. Richmond, with its lines of local railway, extending south 
only to Greensboro, N. C., i86 miles, and west to Covington,. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 47 

Va., 205 miles, is a thing of the past, and in its stead we have 
Richmond, the focus ol a system, or systems, of transportation, 
that, by reason of no diverting points south of us, drains more area 
of country, and richer country at that, than any city in the Union. 
The jobbing trade was literally nothing to begin with. To-day 
we know of houses which, starting on a borrowed capital of a 
few thousand dollars, do a business of nearly a half million dol- 
lars annually. And it is no idle boast that we can and do com- 
pete with any city, north or south, in supplying any line of goods 
for the consumer or merchant. 

THE REASONS. 

This latter assertion is justified by every fact and argument we 
have heretofore advanced in advocacy of Richmond's claims as 
a manufacturing centre. But in order to enforce their relations 
to the specialty under consideration let us briefly re-state some of 
them in connection with other points that must strike the ob- 
server's mind : 

First. Richmond is nearly two liundred miles nearer the southern, 
western and southwestern fields of demand tlian any city nortli of it, 
and from the west i)articiilarly is approached by easier grades than any 
other, Atlantic port. 

Second. A large line of goods are manufactured in Ricliinond and 
our jobbers can buy what is not manufactured here on exactly the same 
terms that the Northern jobbers can. 

Third. The cost of doing business in Ricliniond is, by reason of the 
reduced cost of living so mucli below northern cities that our jobbers 
are enabled to ignore the difi'erence in freights between Richmond and 
the Northern trade centres, which difference the Southern merchant 
would iiave to pay in buying Nortli. 

Fourth. Richmond can give shipments twelve hours in advance, and 
deliver goods twenty-four iiours earlier from time of sliipment than any 
Northern city, with much lower freight rates on account of distance. 

Fifth. Tickets from any point South to Richmond and return, are 
cheaper than to any northern trade centre and return — a consideration 
of some importance to the merciiant buying directly from the iiou.se 
in preference to buying from the .salesman. 

Si.xth. Richmond has every advantage of competition in freigiits 
from western cities by rail, and from eastern cities by both rail and 
water, and has a fair and just tariff to the South, not inimical to the city. 

Seventh. Situated at the head of tidewater where vessels drawing 
eighteen feet of water can come to the wharves, with rail connections to 



48 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

West Point and Newports News (ports of Richmond), where the depth of 
water is sufficient for the largest vessels, the city has every facility for 
its import and export trade. 

PASSENGER TRAFFIC. 

That these conditions are favorable to a continued increase of 
the jobbing trade does not admit of argument, much less of dis- 
pute. The reasoning they convey in their bearing upon the 
future can bring us to but one conclusion; yet there are other 
reasons equally as potent in the premises, one of which is espe- 
cially worthy of consideration. Richmond is on the great high- 
way of passenger traffic from all points South to the North, and 
this service is as cheap and comfortable, as quick and as varied, 
as over any other line, having the advantage of both rail and 
water connection from here to the North. The northern bound 
traveller has the choice of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and 
Potomac line, the fast mail, passenger and express line north, or 
any of the several boat lines. Tickets via Richmond are sold at 
all stations and ticket offices at the same prices as via any other 
route. This is and must remain the popular route; and to the 
Southern merchant common sense and common business princi- 
ples would dictate a trial of the Richmond market, before going 
further north, in order that he may institute a comparison of 
prices, freight rates, quantity of stock carried in his line, and post 
himself regarding such other matters as influence trade. If he 
goes direct to some northern point he loses the benefit of com- 
petition, not knowing the prices and advantages of Richmond. 
Such trial is all the Richmond merchants have ever asked in the 
past, or will ask in the future, to vindicate their assertion that 
this is the best, cheapest, closest, and most natural market for the 
southern trade. The test has been applied with the opening of 
every new feeder to the southern and southwestern railroad sys- 
tems and with invariable success. 

CLASSIFICATION. 

The jobbing trade of Richmond now covers four entire 
States, and extends into portions of four others. A list of 
the articles sold by the jobbing houses would be intermina 
ble, but we mention the leading trade classifications with the 
simple assurance that all of the lines are complete: 

Agricultural Implements — Agencies for all the leading man- 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 49 

ufactories. Hakf.ks and Conkectioneks. Booksellers an'h Sta- 
tioners. Hoot and Shoe Dealers — Handling every variety of 
home-made work and the products of all the leading New England 
manufactories. Boot and Shoe Findings. Bl'ilders' Hardware. 
Cabinet-Makers' Wares. Canned Goods. Carpets and Oil 
Cloths. Cattle. China, CjLass and Crockerv-W^are — Including 
bric-a-brac. Ck.aks — Domestic and imported. Clothing. Coal 
and Wood. Cotton — Raw. Cotton and Wooi.en Mill Siim'lies. 
Ci'TLERV. Drvgs and MEDICINES — Including, paints, oils, dye-stuffs, 
surgical instruments and appliances, soaps, perfumes, and toilet ar- 
ticles. "Drv Goods — Embracing all standard fabrics. Electrical 
Supplies. Fancy Goods and Notions. Fancy Groceries— In- 
cluding imported delicacies and condiments. Frames — Looking-glass 
and picture. Fertilizers. Flrnitlre. Groceries — Under this head 
is embraced everything in the grocery line ; many articles, such as coffees, 
sugars, and molasses being of direct importation. Groind Gli'e, \'.\r- 
nish, Terpentine, &c. (iuNS and Sporting Material. Hardware 
— Every class. Hides .\nd Leather. Hoi'se Firnishing Goods. 
Harness. Hats, Caps, Fi'rs and Straw Goods. Ice. Iron and 
Steel, Lead a.xd Copper. Ladies' and Gents' Underw'ear. Lime, 
Plaster and Ce.ment. Lirricators — For factories and mills, &c. 
Lumber. M.\chinist and Gas-fitters' Supplies. Marbles. Mii.li- 
nery. Musical Instru.men ts — Pianos and organs of all the best man- 
ufactories — and all smaller instruments. Notions and Hosiery — 
general assortments. Nurseries. Papers — Including book, job. 
writing, news, card board, 6y;c. Pictures. Pig-Iron. Plows. Pork. 
Pottery. Produce. Railroad and Miner's Supplies. Regalia. 
Roofing. Saddlery. S.\.sh, Blinds and Doors. Sewing Machines 
— All of the best machines are represented. Silver-ware. Stoves 
AND TiN-\Vx\RE. ToB.\cco — Plug and smoking and snuff. Tobacco- 
nists' Supplies — Including flavorings. Tru.nks and Valises, Toys. 
Wall Papers and rpiioLSTEkiNc; Material. Watches, f Wines 

AND LkiUOKS. Wood AND \\'n.l.< )W-WaKK. Wf)OL. 

It will be seen from a careful examination of the range of 
material covered by the foregoinjy exhibits (manufacturing and 
jobbing) that it is possible for a merchant to secure in Richmond 
AN ASSORTED CAR LOAD OF cooDS, and this all merchants who 
know their business desire to do. The reasons are too obvious 
to need presentation here. 



* It is a notable fact that southern fabrics, especially plaids and osna- 
burgs, are competing on the counters of our wholesale dry gcjods 
houses, with the products of the New England mills. 

t High grades of direct importation. 



CHAPTER VI. 
OF INTEREST TO TOURISTS. 

HISTORIC— POINTS OF INTEREST IN THE CITY— AS A HOME 
FOR INVALIDS— THE SCENERY ON THE RAILROAD LINES 
AND THE SUMMER RESORTS. 

Richmond must always possess a fascination for the tourist. 
As an incorporated place it antedates the Revolutionary period 
by many years, and has been the scene of many stirring incidents 
connected with the Colonial period, the Revolution, and the late 
civil war. Its record is full of historic memories, many of them 
of the most dramatic character. Its very site was consecrated in 
blood in the first half of the first century of the Colonial settle- 
ment. In 1656, Bloody Run, which marks one of the divides in 
the eastern plateau of the city, was the scene of a sanguinary 
engagement between a large force of Richahicrian Indians, and 
the Border Rangers under Colonel Hill and a band of friendly 
Indians under Totopotomoi, in which the latter forces were 
defeated. Shockoe creek, Gillie's creek and Bacon's Quarter 
Branch are associated with important events of the " Bacon's 
Rebellion" period in 1676, and in 1781 the city was visited by 
the British expeditionary force under Arnold and Simcoe, and 
burned. During the civil war, as the capital of the Confederate 
Government, it was the great strategic point of attack and 
defence, the headquarters for the manufacture of all heavy war 
munitions, and was more than once girdled with fire. 

POINTS OF INTEREST. 

St. John's Church is situated on what is known as Church 
Hill — a fact which gives the name to that elevation — in the 
eastern portion of the city, and was built in 1740. It is a quaint, 
old-fashioned structure, and within its walls Patrick Henry, 
speaking to the Virginia Convention in 1775, gave utterance to 
those memorable words: '''Give me liberty, or give me death P^ 



RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. 51 

The graveyard around it is the resting place of the remains of 
the older members of many of Richmond's most noted families, 
and is so filled up that interments cannot now be made without 
special permission of the City Council. 

The Old Stone House is the oldest building of its char- 
acter in Richmond, dating back to the original settlement. 
During the revolutionary war it was for a time the headquarters 
of Washington, and has also been the scene of entertainment of 
Jefferson, Madison, Lafayette, and other distinguished persons. 

The Capitol Building is situated in the Capitol park, or 
square as it is called by Richmond people, in the centre of the 
city, and from the top commands a view of the city and sur- 
rounding country for miles, in every direction. The corner-stone 
of the building was laid August the i8th, 1785, and it is the re- 
pository of many of V^irginia's most valuable relics — Colonial, 
Revolutionary and Confederate. Among the Colonial relics may 
be mentioned the records of the Land Office which are continuous 
from 1620, the chair of the Speaker of the House of Burgesses 
and the old stove made in England in 1770 by Buzaglo, and pre- 
sented to the Colony of Virginia by the Duke of Beaufort. 
This relic is seven feet high, is elaborately ornamented, and up to 
a few years ago did excellent service in heating the rotunda of 
the Capitol. In the rotunda is the Houdon statue of Washing- 
ton — the only authentic statue of Washington in existence, hav- 
ing been modeled from his person — a bust of Lafayette, by the 
same artist, and a statue of Henry Clay, by Joel T. Hart, which 
was presented to the State by the ladies of Virginia. In the State 
Library there are over thirty-five thousand volumes, numerous 
Colonial manuscripts, and a valuable collection of portraits and 
busts of distinguished Virginians. The sessions of the conven- 
tion which passed the ordinance of secession were held in this 
building, as were also the sessions of the Confederate Congress. 
The walls of the House of Delegates are ornamented by pictures 
of Chatham and Jefferson, and those of the Senate chamber by 
Lami's Storming of a Redoubt at Yorktovvn and Elder's General 
R. E. Lee. 

The Capitol Square is one of the most beautiful spots in 
the city. At the highest point in the enclosure is the Washing- 
ton monument, universally conceded to be the finest monumental 



62 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

group in the country, and one of the finest in the world. The 
figure of Washington on horseback overlooks and is surrounded 
by statues of Lewis, Henry, Mason, Jefferson, Marshall and Nel- 
son, which in turn overlook allegorical figures, typifying " Colo- 
nial times," "Revolution,'" "Bill of Rights," "Independence," 
"Justice," and " Finance," and the historic events that made these 
men famous. The figures are of bronze, and the entire cost of 
the monument was $259,913.61. All of the figures, except those 
of Lewis, Nelson and Marshall, and the allegorical figures, were 
designed and executed by Crawford. At his death, the contract 
for the unfinished work was awarded to Randolph Rogers. Near 
the Washington monument is the Foley statue of Stonewall 
Jackson, presented to the State of Virginia by the Right Hon- 
orable A. J. Beresford-Hope, and other Enghsh gendemen. 
A pretty incident connected with this work of art is, that the 
Boston Knights Templar, during a recent visit to Richmond, 
marched alone, and unknown to their hosts, from their hotel to 
the Capitol grounds, and while their band discoursed appropriate 
music, formed around the statue and decorated it with a wreath 
of flowers. Within the Capitol enclosure are also the guber- 
natorial mansion and the old bell-house, which latter, up to 
the days of reconstruction, served as a guard-house for the State 
Guard, the standing army of Virginia. This guard did police 
duty in and about the public buildings. The bell in the tower 
was used to strike the time, to sound fire-alarms and call out the 
other military. 

The Monumental Church is built on the site of the old 
Richmond Theatre, which was burned December 26, 1811. One 
hundred and twenty people, including the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth, George W. Smith, perished in the flames. In the 
portico of the church is a monument on which are recorded the 
names of the victims. 

St. Paul's, the largest Episcopal church in the city, is the 
edifice in which President Jefferson Davis was seated on Sunday, 
April 2d, 1865, when the news was received from General Lee 
sounding the death-knell of the Confederacy. 

LiBBY Prison, now a fertiUzer mill, is a plain brick building, 
situated in the lower part of the city, and was used as a Federal 
prison during the war. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 5S 

On BiXLE Isle, a large island in James river, an extensive 
prison camp was located, and it was this point Dahlgren was 
endeavoring to reach when he made his celebrated raid. 

Hollywood Cemetery is on the extreme western edge of 
the city, and is a place of exceptional natural beauty. Here are 
buried twelve thousand Confederate soldiers, and here also are 
located the Monroe monument, and the monument to the Con- 
federate dead, erected by the ladies of the Hollywood Memorial 
Association. This latter is a granite pyramid 90 feet high. 
Among other distinguished men buried in Hollywood are John 
Randolph of Roanoke, Lieutenant- General A. P. Hill, Major- 
General Geo. Pickett, of Gettysburg fame; Commodore Mathew 
F. Maury, Governor Henry A. Wise, General J. E. B. Stuart, the 
cavalry leader, President John Tyler, and others. 

0.\K\vooD Cemetery, another beautiful spot, is on the eastern 
corporation boundary, and the National Cemetery is situated 
just below the city. 

The Finest Public Buildings are the Custom-House and 
Post-Ofhce, the Medical College, and the Almshouse. The City 
Hall, a striking Doric structure, was condemned and pulled down 
as insecure, but the people of the city have voted to erect a new 
one at a cost of $300,000. The Medical College is a State insti- 
tution of the highest repute at home and abroad. The faculty 
embraces some of the most eminent physicians in Richmond, and 
its clinical advantages are very superior. 

The Confederate White House.— The mansion occupied 
by President Davis during the war is a substantial building 
erected by an opulent gentleman for a private residence. It is 
now used as a public school. The Lee House is on the most 
fashionable thoroughfare and is a commodious but unpretentious 
building. 

Valentine's Studio attracts a large number of visitors. 
Here, in addition to the original casts of the artist's own works 
— prominent among them the recumbent figure of General R. 
E. Lee — are numerous examples of the plastic art from abroad. 
In the neighborhood of Valentine's studio is the residence of 
Chief Justice John Marshall. 

The Richmond College grounds and buildings are situated 



54 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

near the western boundary of the city at the head of one of the 
most fashionable avenues. The institution is in a flourishing con- 
dition, and is accumulating a valuable museum. 

The Battle-fields around Richmond are objects of inter- 
est to tourists from all parts of the country, and many of the 
earthworks thrown up on them are still standing. They are ap- 
proached from the city by good roads. The more generally 
visited points are Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, Mechanicsville, Fort 
Harrison, Malvern Hill, Savage's Station and Drewry's Bluif. 
Savage Station can also be reached by the Richmond, York 
River and Chesapeake Railroad, and Drewry's Bluff by the river. 
This latter stronghold was the scene of the unsuccessful attack, 
made May i6, 1862, by the Union fleet, consisting of the Moni- 
tor, Galena, Aroostook, Naugatuck, Port Royal and other vessels. 

FOR INVALIDS. 

Richmond is the great intermediate stopping-place for travel- 
lers between Florida and the North, and is highly commended 
as a winter residence for those fleeing the more rigorous climate 
of the latter section. The winters are mild, and in the late spring 
the city is truly a city of foliage and flowers. So much of the 
travel alluded to passes through here that it is in contemplation 
to erect a handsome hotel in the fashionable part of the city for 
its especial accommodation. Regardless of this improvement, 
however, there is room for the profitable investment of capital in 
another hotel. As before stated, the people extend the warmest 
welcome to strangers, and already there is a large resident north- 
ern element. As a diverging point for tourists it also possesses 
great advantages. A few hours' ride by any line of transporta- 
tion brings complete change of scenery, and on every route, 
water or rail, there are points of interest worth especial trips. 

JAMES RIVER ROUTE. 

The banks of the river from Richmond to Norfolk are studded 
on both sides with historical localities. Powhatan, in sight of 
the city, is the site of one of the residences of the Indian king by 
that name, whose daughter saved the life of Captain John Smith. 
.She stands in Virginia's history as an Indian princess and the 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 55 

maternal ancestor of some of the most prominent people in 
the State. Whitby was settled as early as 1620, only thirteen 
years after Jamestown, and Warwick, only four miles below 
Richmond, was before the Revolution the shipping point for the 
city. Passing Ampthill, the residence of a celebrated Colonial 
patriot, Falling Creek, on which is the site of the first iron 
furnace erected in the Colony, Drewry's and Chaffin's 
Bluffs, we come to Dutch Gap. Here the river makes a 
long sweep around a narrow neck of land, known as Farrar's 
Island, and here General B. F. Butler in 1864 undertook to 
cut his canal, with a view of protecting the Federal gunboats 
from the heavy fire of the Confederate batteries. After the 
war the work was completed by the United States govern- 
ment, in the interest of commerce, and has proved a great 
advantage to the city, as it cuts off seven miles of very 
tedious navigation. Between Dutch Gap and Fort Pow- 
hatan, built during the Revolution by order of Baron Steuben, 
may be noted Varina and Curl's Neck, Colonial resi- 
dences; Turkey Bend, where General McClellan took refuge 
under cover of his gunboats after the seven days' figlit; Mal- 
vern Hill, Shirley and Berkeley, fine old Colonial home- 
steads — the latter the birthplace of President Harrison ; West- 
over, the seat of William Byrd, the founder of Richmond and 
Petersburg; Wilcox's, where General Grant crossed the James 
on his movement from Spotsylvania Courthouse to Petersburg, 
and Weyanoke, another Colonial homestead, and the scene 
of a massacre of the settlers by the Indians. Upper Bran- 
don, Lower Brandon and Sandy Point, Colonial resi- 
dences, follow next, and then comes Jamestown, or "James 
Cittie," the first capital of the Colony, and the seat of the 
residences of the Royal Governors of Virginia. In 1619 the 
first legislative assembly in America met at Jamestown and until 
1676 it continued to be the scene of all the pomp and ceremony 
of a court in minature. In that year, however — during Bacon's 
Rebellion — it was burned, and began to decline, and now all that 
marks the spot is the tower of the old church in which Poca- 
hontas was baptized and married, and the graveyard surrounding 
it. Just below Jamestown is King's Mill Wharf, the landing 
for Williamsburg, four miles distant, to which the capital of the 



56 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Colony was removed in 1698, and where Spotswood and his suc- 
cessors reigned in vice-regal splendor until the voice of Henry 
sounded the key-note of revolution. Williamsburg was settled 
in 1632 and is the seat of the venerable College of Wil- 
liam AND Mary, founded in 1692, and the oldest seat of learning 
in the United States except Harvard. Among the other re- 
minders of the Colonial period yet to be seen are the remains of 
the Governor's palace, the Powder-horn, and the House of Bur- 
gesses, where Henry made his great speech ending, " If this be 
treason make the 7nost of it." The parish church, one of the 
oldest church edifices in Virginia, is in an excellent state of pre- 
servation. Williamsburg can also be reached by the Newports 
News branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway. Off New- 
ports News, the next point of interest, the naval engagement 
between the Confederate ram Virginia (or Merrimac) and the 
steamers Patrick Henry and Jamestown and two or three small 
gunboats, and the United States fleet of wooden vessels took 
place March 8, 1862, and the following day in the same waters 
occurred the fight between the Virginia and the Monitor. At 
Old Point Comfort are the Hygeia hotel, a favorite summer 
resort and winter sanitarium, and Fortress Monroe, the largest 
and strongest fortress in this country. Near Fortress Monroe is the 
town of Hampton, famous in Colonial, Revolutionary and Con- 
federate history. It is the seat of the Hampton Normal and Agri- 
cultural Institute, and the location of one of the oldest churches 
in the United States. The marshes and reaches of James river 
abound in water fowl, affording excellent sport and are much 
frequented by Northern sportsmen. 

THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO ROUTE. 

Hanover courthouse' is the first place of note after leaving 
Richmond on the road going west. The old courthouse was 
erected in 1735, of imported brick, and is memorable for its 
colonial and revolutionary reminiscences. Gordonsville is the 
first large town, but before reaching it Trevillian's station is 
passed, and near this point is the Military Road cut by Lafay- 
ette when in pursuit of the British in 1781. Shadwell, 93 miles 
from Richmond, is the site of the old mill property of Thomas 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 57 

Jefferson (the ruins are still standing^), and two miles further west 
the traveller comes in sight of Monticello, the famous retreat 
and burial-place of the great commoner. Charlottesville is next, 
and a mile beyond is the University of Virginia, the beautiful 
grounds and buildings of which are in full view of the railroad. 
This institution, the "child of Mr. Jefferson's old age," was 
founded in 1819, in pursuance of a long cherished idea, and for- 
mally opened March 7, 1S25. Mr. Jefiferson superintended every 
detail of the construction of the buildings, importing artizans to 
do some of the finer work. It is liberally endowed by the State 
of Virginia, and has always stood in the front rank of the edu- 
cational institutions of the country. Among its po: ' bellum 
benefactors may be mentioned the Honorable W. W. Corcoran, 
of Washington, W. H. Vanderbilt, of New York city, and the 
late Lewis Brooks, of Rochester. To Mr. Brooks it owes its 
handsome museum building and the splendid collection it con- 
tains Through the liberality of Mr. Leander McCormick, of 
Chicago, it also possesses a magnificent observatory. The Uni- 
versity draws its patronage from all parts of the country, and its 
alumni have distinguished themselves in all walks of life. It may 
be mentioned here, as an evidence of the abatement of sectional 
feeling, that not only are the University and other educational 
institutions receiving students from the North, but that boys 
are being prepared in our private schools for these institu- 
tions. From Mechum's river, ten miles west of the Univer- 
sity, the road begins the ascent of the eastern slope of the Blue 
Ridge, tunnelling the mountains at Rockfish gap. This point is 
1,500 above tide-level and the windings of the road before reach- 
ing the tunnel command a view of one of the most picturesque 
landscapes in this country. From the western mouth of the tun- 
nel, the road descends into the Valley of Virginia, connecting at 
Waynesboro with the Shenandoah Valley Railroad for Luray 
Caverns — conceded to be among the most remarkable cave- 
formations in the world. Staunton, 136 miles from Richmond, 
is the seat of four of the largest female educational institutions in 
the South — the Augusta Female Seminary (Presbyterian), the 
Virginia Female Institute (Episcopal;, the Wesleyan Female In- 
stitute (Methodist), and Staunton Female Seminary (Lutheran). 
It is a place remarkable for its health, and is the junction of the 



58 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Valley and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads. At this point 
the traveller makes railroad or stage connection for Stribling 
Springs, Weyer's Cave, the Cave of the Fountains, and R-awley, 
Orkney, and Capon Springs. A few miles west of Staunton the 
road enters what is termed the great mineral spring basin of Vir- 
ginia and West Virginia, in which are situated the following well 
known summer resorts: Variety Springs, Crawford Springs, Cold 
Sulphur Springs, Rockbridge Baths, Rockbridge Alum and Jor- 
dan Alum Springs, Millboro' Springs, Wallawhatoola Springs, 
the Warm, Hot and Healing Springs, Dagger's Springs, the Old 
Sweet and the Sweet Chalybeate Springs, the Salt Sulphur, the 
Red Sulphur, and the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs. The 
distance from Staunton to the White Sulphur is 91 miles, and the 
distance from the White Sulphur to Huntington is 194 miles,, 
much of the road being through a country unequalled for wild- 
ness and grandeur of scenery, and involving feats of engineering 
as difficult as any ever attempted on this continent. The Rev. 
John Hall, D. D , in a letter to a New York paper describing his 
trip over the road, says : 

"My way lay along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, and 
he who can travel by it unmoved ought to be placed permanently on 
the Jersey flats, and forbidden the sight of anything more picturesque 
than a machine shop. There is a famous road in Italy which attracts, 
by its rapid alternations of dark tunnel and picturesque valley ; but it 
is no exaggeration to say that as much could be abstracted from the 
Virginia line without being missed. Every one who ever crossed the 
Alps into Italy remembers the zigzags from which he looks down on 
the valley he is reaching. But the hills around are bare and hard. The 
generous Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge are richly wooded to their 
tops, and look as soft and green as the hill-sides around Lake Maggiore. 
All travellers by the Pennsylvania Central remember that attractive 
piece of fancy engineering known as the Horse-Shoe, and nobody has 
gone to California without recalling the doubling of Cape Horn — where 
3'our train winds round the high brow of a mountain, as if it had 
climbed up to give you a look at the valleys below. The traveller 
across the Virginias can have delights like these again and again re- 
peated. The Rhine owes no little of its attractiveness to the battle- 
ments on its steeps. The New river is not, indeed, like the Rhine in 
depth or breadth, but it has features of its own. Now it is a broad 
stream, leisurely chattering to the woods that overhang it; anon it is in 
a narrower bed scolding the rocks as large as houses, that have intruded 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 50 

themselves upon it from the hill-sides, of which they grew weary. lUit 
for giant cliffs, Eagle's N'ests, Lover's Leaps, Drachenfels, and mountain 
fastnesses in ruins, the New river can compete with any stream of 
travelled lands, and with this difference in its favor, that no cunning 
count or baron bold piled up those frowning battlements. Geological 
forces in an Omnipotent hand, and with an unlimited time in which to 
work, placed these precipitous, castle-like crowns on the wooded hills, 
and gave them a peculiarity not seen elsewhere — namely: that behind 
them corn and wine abound ; for the Alleghanies are fertile to their 
summits. As (jne is whirled along, it is difticult to say which challenges 
most admiration — the river below, the cliffs above, the graceful lines of 
the hills, tile moving shadows over the green slopes of the mountain 
sides, or the sublime audacity that dared to run a railroad through such 
A region." 

RICHMOND AND ALLEGHANY ROUTE. 

This road traverses the beautiful James River valley for 230 
miles. There is hardly a foot of the distance that is not pic- 
turesque and the traveler is seldom if ever out of sight of the 
river. From Richmond to Lynchburg, 146 miles, the valley is 
very wide, the farm-lands are in a very high state of cultivation, 
the elevations at many points are cro\vned by handsome country 
seats, and the ponds formed by the dams of the old canal com- 
pany present the appearance of a series of lakes. Beyond 
Lynchburg the line strikes into the mountainous regions and the 
scenery is exceedingly grand. For long stretches it hugs the 
bluffs on one side while the river foams and eddies and dashes 
over its rocky bed on the other. At Balcony Falls where the 
James river bursts through the Blue Ridge and the mountains 
rise a thousand feet from the water's edge, the line divides — one 
branch taking the bank of North river to Lexington, and the 
other continuing, as before described, along the James, via the 
Natural Bridge to Buchanan, and thence to Clifton Forge. This 
latter place marks the water-gap cut through the prolongation 
of Richpatch mountain, and through which flow the waters of 
the Jackson fork of the James river. The cliffs on either side of 
the river are nearly perpendicular, suggesting the idea that some 
mighty convulsion of nature has cleft the mountain in twain, 
while high up on either bluff, the peculiar geological formation 
gives a perfect arch. Lexington is noted as a centre of educa- 
tion, and is one of the prettiest and healthiest towns in the State. 



60 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Here are located Washington and Lee University, the Vir- 
ginia Military Institute, and the Ann Smith Female. 
Academy. The first-named was founded in 1749, as Augusta. 
Academy. In 1777, it was removed to the vicinity of Lexington, 
and in 1796,* it was endowed by General Washington, with a. 
view to making it a national school and named Washington 
Academy,f and in 1812 was organized under a new charter as- 
Washington College. Its alumni embrace some of the most 
distinguished Virginians of the past and present. Subsequently 
it was further endowed by Light Horse Harry Lee, John Rob- 
inson, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution, and friend of 
Washington, and the Society of the Cincinnati. At the close 
of the late civil war. General R. E. Lee was called to the Presi- 
dency of the institution, in which position he remained until his. 
death. He was succeeded by his soij. General G. W. C. Lee, and 
in 1 87 1, the name of the Institution was changed to Washington 

* Between the two last dates it was known as Liberty Hall Academy,, 
and its rector, William Graham, made a northern tour in its interest 
" as far as Boston, collecting 776 pounds and 18 shillings." During 
Tarleton's demonstration, when the General Assembly was driven 
from the low country towards the mountains, the rector and his boys 
marched to Rockfish Gap to dispute the passage of the Blue Ridge- 
Priestly, the distinguished teacher of Tennessee, and Alexander of 
Princeton, were pupils at Liberty Hall Academy. 

t General Washington, in reply to a letter from Samuel Houston^ 
clerk of the Board acknowledging the endowment (which at this day 
yields 6 per cent, on 150,000), wrote as follows : 

" Mount Vernon, June 17, 1798. 

" Gentlemen — Unaccountable as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, 
that the address with which you were pleased to honor me — dated the 
1 2th of April — never came to my hands until the 14th instant. 

" To promote literature in this rising Empire, and to encourage the 
Arts, have ever been amongst the warmest wishes of my heart. And if 
the donation which the generosity of the Legislature of the Common- 
wealth of Virginia has enabled me to bestow on Liberty Hall, now by 
your politeness called Washington Academy, is likely to prove a mean 
to accomplish these ends, it will contribute to the gratification of my 
desires. Sentiments like those which have flowed from your pen ex- 
cite my gratitude, whilst I offer my best vows for the prosperity of the 
Academy, and for the honor and happiness of those under whose 

auspices it is conducted. 

" George Washington." 



RICHMOND. VIRGINIA 61 

and Lee University. Of late years the endowment fund has 
been greatly increased, through the munificence of friends, both 
North and South, who desire to carry out Washington's idea of a 
national seat of learning. Among the most prominent benefac- 
tors may be mentioned Honorable Cyrus McCormick, of Chi- 
cago, the late Warren Newcomb, of New York, Hon. W. W. Cor- 
coran, of Washington, the late Honorable George Peabody, the 
late Col. Thomas Scotland H. H. Houston, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
R. H. Bayly, Esq., of New Orleans, and the late Lewis Brooks, 
of Rochester, and others. A number of scholarships also have 
been founded by Northern ladies and gentlemen, and the widow 
of Mr. Newcomb has recently erected on the college grounds, as 
a memorial to her husband, a new library building at a cost of 
$20,000. The course is on the most advanced plane. The Vir- 
ginia Military Institute was founded in 1839, is endowed by 
the State, and has a reputation for thoroughness of work not 
second to that of the National Military Academy. In this 
institution were educated many of the prominent officers of 
the Confederate army, and it was through the Institute boys as 
drill-masters that Virginia was able to put an army in the field so 
soon after the secession of the State. Five of its professors and 
two hundred of its alumni were slain in battle in the late civil 
war, and three hundred and fifty of its alumni wounded. The 
buildings were burned during General Hunter's raid, but have 
been rebuilt according to the original plan. Stonewall Jackson 
was a professor in the Military Institute at the breaking out of 
the civil war, and his remains are buried in the Lexington ceme- 
tery. The remains of General Lee and wife and daughter rest 
temporarily beneath the floor of Wasliington and Lee University 
chapel, but are to be removed to the crypt beneath the Lee 
mausoleum — an annex to the chapi^l — which will contain Valen- 
tine's marble recumbent figure of the Confederate chieftain. 
This is Mr. Valentine's chef d\euvrc', and will be unveiled in 
June next. The Ann Smith Academy is a venerable institution, 
enjoying a reputation all over the State. From Lexington there 
is stage connection to Goshen, on the Chesapeake and Ohio rail- 
way, and through Goshen Pass, noted for the beauty of its 
scenery. There is also stage service to the Natural Bridge, 
■where, it may be noted, a fine park has been laid out, and new 
hotels have lately been erected. The tributaries of the James 



62 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

river, as do all the mountain streams of Virginia, abound in 
food fishes, especially the black bass and trout, and in the moun- 
tains themselves are found deer, bear, wild turkeys, pheasants, 
and other game. 

RICHMOND AND DANVILLE ROUTE. 

The Richmond and Danville system is the most direct route 
to the Buffalo Lithia Springs, a noted health resort in Virginia, 
and the resorts of Northeast Georgia, Upper South Carolina, 
and Western North Carolina which, until late years, constituted 
a terra incog7iiia to the outside world. In Northeast Georgia and 
Western North Carolina, particularly, the scenery is grand be- 
yond description, abounding as it does in towering mountains, 
rapid torrents, and dizzy waterfalls. The country is also rich in 
Indian lore. In Georgia there are the White Sulphur Springs, 
the Lodge Rock,. Mount Airy, Tallulah Falls, the Grand Chasm, 
Toccoa Falls ; and in North Carolina — CuUisaja Falls, Catalouche 
Canyon, Sugar Fork Falls, the scenes on the French Broad, 
Piedmont Springs, Warm Springs, Mount Mitchell, Mount 
Pisgah, and other points well worthy of a special visit. The 
scenery about Asheville has caused that country to be most 
properly named the " Switzerland of America." On the Rich- 
mond, Chesapeake and York River division of this system the 
tourist leaving Richmond, passes Savage Station or Fair Oaks, 
and taking the boat at West Point proceeds to Yorktown, the 
scene of Lord Cornwallis's surrender. 

THE RICHMOND AND FREDERICKSBURG ROUTE. 

The Richmond and Fredericksburg is the favorite line for 
tourists from the North coming to Richmond. At Washington 
they have the option of taking the boat down the Potomac river, 
and passing in full view of Mount Vernon — or the Pennsylvania 
AH -rail Connection to Quantico. At and near the old city of 
Fredericksburg are some of the most noted battle-fields of the 
war. Ashland, i6 miles from Richmond, is the principal town 
between Fredericksburg and Richmond, is but a short distance 
from the birthplace of Henry Clay, and is the seat of Randolph 
Macon College. This Institution was founded in 1832, by the 
Methodist denomination, and is in a flourishing condition. Ash- 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 63 

land is also the residence of numbers of Richmond business men. 
The Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal), organized in 
1827, is located at Alexandria, Virginia, on the line of this sys- 
tem, between Richmond and Washington. There has been only 
one fatal accident on this road — the oldest road in the State — 
and that was not the fault of the company. 

THE COAST-LINE ROUTE. 

Twenty-two miles from Richmond the Coast- line route passes 
through Petersburg, thence on to the Seaside resorts of North 
Carolina and the orange groves of Florida. Petersburg is a 
city of 22,000 inhabitants. The country around it was the 
scene of some of the most desperate fighting of the war, and 
many of the houses in the city bear the marks of Federal shells 
to this day. The " Crater " battle-field is one of the objects of 
especial interest connected with those dark days, and the colonial 
period is represented in the picturesque ruins of old Biandford 
church. From Petersburg it is but a short ride by rail over the 
Norfolk and Western road to the edge of the famous Dismal 
Swamp. 

THE NORFOLK AND WESTERN ROUTE. 

Connection is made with the Norfolk and Western route by 
either the Petersburg, the Danville, or the Richmond and 
Alleghany. From Burkeville, the point of connection with the 
Danville road to Lynchburg, the route passes through much of 
the territory over which General Lee's army made its retreat to 
Appomattox Courthouse, the scene of the surrender. Farm- 
ville, in Prince Edward county, is the depot for Hampden Sid- 
ney, the seat of Hampden Sidney College and Union Theological 
Seminary. The former was organized in 1775 under Presbyte- 
rian auspices, the latter in 1824. Both schools have a widespread 
and enviable reputation. West of Lynchburg the objects of in- 
terests for tourists, pleasure and health seekers reached by the 
road are Blue Ridge Springs, Coyner's Springs, the Peaks of 
Otter, Salt Pond, Bedford Alum Springs, Bald Knob, the Natu- 
ral Tunnel, Botetourt Springs (the seat of Hollins (Female) In- 
stitute), Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs, Montgomery White 
Sulphur Springs, the Yellow Sulphur Springs, Pulaski Alum 



64 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

Springs, New River White Sulphur Springs, Sharon Springs, 
and Alleghany Springs. At Salem is located Roanoke College, 
organized under Lutheran patronage in 1853; ^^'^ ^t Emory, 
Emory and Henry College, organized in 1837. The Virginia 
Agricultural and Mechanical College, a State institution, is situ- 
ated at Blacksburg, on this route. 

CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion and apropos of summer resorts and excursions let 
us again say a word to artizans and others whose means will not 
allow them to avail themselves of the fashionable places of recre- 
ation. The heated term in Richmond does not necessitate a gen- 
eral exodus, and even when it becomes desirable to have a change 
of air, going into the country does not involve a long and expen- 
sive trip. The gates of the city literally open out upon pastures 
green and running streams — a buggy ride of a couple of miles 
in any direction from the corporation line and the country is 
spread before us in all of its freshness. The towns and villages of 
the State are far between, and on all the railroad routes we have 
described there are numerous farm houses where good board 
can be obtained at reasonable rates, and every necessary accom- 
modation is found. The country folk of Virginia, while they 
cannot, as a rule, afford to keep open houses, as they did before 
the war, have lost none of their hospitality or faculty for making 
strangers feel at home, and for this reason many families of abun- 
dant means prefer the quiet farm-house, for spending the summer, 
to the public resorts. 



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